Hot days have come and each of us wants to quench our thirst. So the hand stretches to the refrigerator for a soft drink. And I remember the distant 1960s, when my grandfather gave me instructions on how to quench my thirst in the summer with health benefits, especially in case of indigestion after taking melons or other gifts of the Turkmen fields. He used to get his tin box of Indian tea with a tight-fitting lid from the shelf and, like a magician, take out a pinch of crushed and dried flowers of yandak – camel’s thorn. Having brewed and mixed it with honey, he gave us this wonderful, truly tonic drink.

Our ancestors from time immemorial grasped the causal relationship of the effects of medicinal plants on human health. Knowledge was fixed and deposited in the collective memory of an endless succession of generations, in order to later find application in everyday life.