Journal of Medicinal Plants Research Vol. 6(12), pp. 2324-2339, 30 March, 2012 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/JMPR DOI: 10.5897/JMPR11.831 ISSN 1996-0875 ©2012 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Medicinal plants from an old Bulgarian medical book Anely Nedelcheva Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Faculty of Biology, Department of Botany, Sofia, Bulgaria. E-mail: aneli_nedelcheva@yahoo.com. Accepted 18 July, 2011 The aim of this study was to conduct an ethnobotanical research of old written sources which give information about medicinal plants and preparation of folk remedies for a particular historical period. The object of the present study is “Canon Prayer to St. Ivan Rilski and Medicinal Text” (1845) - a part of the Bulgarian early printed literature heritage. The 92 submitted recipes cover a wide range of illnesses and symptoms ranging from antiseptic to cures for neurological diseases. High species diversity of medicinal plants is represented in the book - most of them are vascular plants from 36 families (Leguminosae, Umbeliferae, Compositae, Zingiberaceae, Piperaceae, Myristicaceae, Lauraceae, Labiatae, Liliaceae, etc.) and 65 genera. The main components in written folk remedies are medicinal plants (more than 69), followed by the animals and animal products (20) such as honey, eggs, leeches, blood, musk, etc., mineral elements (sulphur (S), mercury (Hg), Au, gold (Au), iron (Fe)) and other organic and inorganic compounds (30). The significant participation of spices such as clove, cinnamon, mastic and ginger in folk remedies sheds new light on the list of species that are traditionally used in the folk medicine. The ethnobotanical study on this book, support the thesis that it was founded on authentic recipes from the healing activity of St. Ivan Rilski, which has increased its historical value a lot. Key words: Ethnobotany, folk remedies, medicinal plants, old book, St. Ivan Rilski. INTRODUCTION Because of the recent trends to search for new medicinal plants and the rediscovery of alternative methods to treat diseases, the interest to all sources of popular knowledge concerning the folk medicine is expected and logical. This trend in scientific studies is quite visible in many contemporary documents of world health organization (WHO) (Bodeker et al., 2005). In the recent years, a lot of ethnobotanical investigations were aimed at collecting, analyzing and systematizing the accumulated traditional folk knowledge (Hatfield, 2004). The methods applied mainly by conducting interviews in different regions of the world are followed by modern quantitative and numerical analysis. The number of these studies has increased in Europe and in particular in the Balkan region (Redzic, 2009; Santayana et al., 2010; Dogan et al., 2011). Bulgarians have been using herbal medicine to treat some common diseases for centuries. The empirical data of medicinal plants and traditional herbal drugs is passed on from one generation to another as oral folklore and only little part of it can be found in written texts - manuscripts or herbal books. Most of them are well preserved and recorded with regard to the responsibility to keep the national traditional knowledge (Balan, 1909; Pogorelov, 1923; Stoyanov, 1957-1959; Petkanova, 2003). Written historical records are documentary sources with greater degree of reliability of the information. They provide data which summarizes the folklore experience of many generations. A good example in that regard is the study of the works of Cervantes with references to plants, plant communities, and products (Santayana et al., 2006). Almanacs, orthodox books, books with herbal recipes and books of domestic medicine abundant during the XIX century were a mix of officinal and folk medicine. Some ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological studies have focused on written documents - historical documents, herbal books, literature, etc. (Richmond et al., 2003; Santayana et al., 2006; Quave et al., 2008;