Among the curatives used in ancient medicine were all types of plant, animal (nearly all parts of animals) and some mineral compounds. The use of these compounds led to an extensive compendium of curative recipes and medications, some still available today.
 For example, long time ago yeast was recognized for its healing qualities and was applied to leg ulcers and swellings. Yeast's were also taken internally for digestive disorders and were an effective cure for ulcers. Herbal ingredients are common in the medieval medical formulations.
 Ancient medical prescriptions books contain large variety of herbal species used to make the remedies for different diseases. Usually herbs are used to prepare a tea or decoct, but healers also used juice from fresh herbs, or extract from root or fruit, etc. One of frequently used herb is Sweetclower. The Yellow Sweetclover or Meliot has aromatic, emollient and carminative properties. It was formerly much respected in medicine as an emollient and digestive and is recommended for many complaints, the juice for clearing the eyesight, and boiled with fat and other ingredients, as an application to veins and ulcers.
 Papaver Somniferum (Opium Poppy) is the herb most frequently used by ancient medicines and can be found very often at the old medical recipes. The drug collected from Opium Poppy was known in very remote times and the Greeks and Romans collected it. It is probable that the physicians of the Arabian school introduced the drug into India, as well as into Europe. It was originally used only as a medication. Opium Poppy is used by medieval medicine like cure for all diseases and it may be found in different prescriptions, from cures for the skin diseases to the psychiatric illness.
 Often used in many medieval prescriptions is Dandelion. The first mention of the Dandelion as a medicine is also in the works of the Arabian physicians of the tenth and eleventh centuries, who speak of it as a sort of wild Endive, under the name of Taraxcacon. Dandelion was much valued as a medicine in the XVII and XVIII century, and is still extensively employed. Today is well known that Dandelion has diuretic, tonic and slightly aperients. It is a general tonic to the system, but especially to the urinary organs, and is mainly used in kidney and liver disorders. Those properties of Dandelion are examined and proven, and best of all that is not being poisonous, quite big doses of its preparations may be taken.
 Also, commonly used herb in medieval medicine is Common Marshmallow or Marsh Mallow. Most of the Mallows have been used as food, and are mentioned by early classic writers in this connection. Mallow was an esculent vegetable among the Romans, a dish of Marsh Mallow was one of their delicacies. The Chinese use some sort of Mallow in their food, and Prosper Alpinus stated (in 1592) that a plant of the Mallow kind was eaten by the Egyptians. When boiled first and fried with onions and butter, the roots are said to form a palatable dish, and in times of scarceness consequent upon the failure of the crops, this plant, which fortunately grows there in great abundance, is much collected for food.
 In Job XXX. 4 we read of Mallow being eaten in time of famine. Horace and Martial talk about the laxative properties of the Marsh Mallow leaves and root, and Virgil tells us of the fondness of goats for the foliage of the Mallow. Dioscorides praise it as a remedy, and in ancient days it was not only valued as a medicine, but was used, especially the Musk Mallow, to decorate the graves of friends.