While Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine represent two very distinct practices of medicine, thousands of years of cultural and economic exchange have led to numerous exchanges and overlap of theory, treatment modalities, and use of pharmacological substances. By looking closely at this exchange of medicine, we can examine how trade and cultural contact influenced the use of medicine and its practice. Linguistic correlation, language reconstruction, geographic distribution of plants, received and discovered medical texts, exploration of primary sources in Sanskrit and Classical Chinese will be used to create a clearer picture of the exchange of medicines in Antiquity and provide greater understanding of how these two ancient practices developed into the systems used today.
