New plants, new medicines

The excitement for the medical potential of the new plants encountered in the New World was poignantly rendered in Nicolas Monardes' Historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales (1574),  translated into English in 1577 as Joyfull News Out of the New Found World. Monardes was perhaps most famous for promoting the medicinal role of new-found tobacco, a subject of intense debate in the 17th century.