**Abstract**

Romanian traditional medicine has an extremely old history. The Dacian knowledge of the curative properties of medicinal plants was documented by Herodotus, Hippocrates, Galen, and Dioscorides. It must be emphasized that modern chemical screening has confirmed the therapeutic properties of the medicinal plants used by the Dacians. More interesting is that Dacians used many of these herbs for different dishes. Practically, for Dacians, food was medicine. Recent research on some Romanian medicinal plants has highlighted their pharmacognostical importance. It is known that currently, the importance and dynamics of the research on medicinal plants in the area of drug discovery continues to increase worldwide. The main reason is not only the high efficiency of secondary metabolites in case of serious diseases (cancer, viral infections, malaria, etc.) but also the minimization of the side effects of the synthetic drugs.

**Keywords:** Dacians, phytotherapy, secondary metabolites

#### **1. Introduction**

Phytotherapy has always played an essential role in the development of humanity. Traditional medicine still continues to have major importance in many areas of the world, especially in low-income regions [1–7].

Although in developed countries, alternative medicine has been outdated by modern medical techniques, at present, there is a growing trend toward natural remedies. The importance of medicinal plants emerges from the fact that worldwide, almost 50% of existing synthetic medicaments are derived from natural extracts [2–7].

The main ancient medicinal systems are considered to be: Ayurvedic, Greek, and Chinese medicine [8, 9]. However, there are very few documents about Dacian medicine, considered by their contemporaries and later by archeological evidence as highly advanced [8, 10–21].

In traditional Romanian medicine, almost all the natural remedies taken from the Dacians are found [8, 10–23].
