Topic summary

Unani medicine

Unani medicine

Unani medicine or Unani Tibb (Urdu: طب یونانیtibb-i-yūnānī) is a Greco-Arabic traditional medicine system practiced in areas of South Asia and Central Asia. Unani medicine uses the humoral theory of diagnosis, which predates the discovery of microbes and modern medicine. Unani medicine and these theories are regarded as pseudoscientific.

The term Yūnānī means 'Greek', referring to the fact that the Greco-Arabic system of medicine was based on the teachings of the Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen.

The Hellenistic origin of Unani medicine is still visible in its being based on the classical four humours: phlegm (balgham), blood (dam), yellow bile (ṣafrā) and black bile (saudā), but it has also been influenced by Indian and Chinese traditional systems.