New World materia medica in Spanish renaissance medicine: from scholarly reception to practical impact.

The objective of Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492 was to find a new route to the legendary spice islands of the East. Europe wanted cheaper spices and a larger share of this lucrative market. So the colonization and exploitation of the vast American territories was in part driven by a search for plants that would be useful for either culinary or medicinal purposes. Columbus's letter to Luis de Santangel of 14931 and the reports of Pedro Martir de Angleria in 15112 provide evidence of the potential economic importance of the exotic drugs found in the New World.3 But the assimilation and practical distribution of new therapeutic tools, especially simple drugs, and their incorporation into a well-structured Galenic medical system