No drug was in higher repute with the ancients for medicinal purposes; and though the Median variety was a coarse kind, inferior in repute, not only to the Cyrenaic, but also to the Parthian and the Syrian, it seems to have been exported both to Greece and Borne, and to have been largely used by druggists, however little esteemed by physicians.
The other vegetable products which Media furnished, or was believed to furnish, to the ancient world, were bdellium, amomum, cardamomum, gum tragacanth, wild-vine oil, and sagaponum, or the _Ferula persica_.

Of these, gum tragacanth is still largely produced, and is an important article of commerce.

Wild vines abound in Zagros and Elburz, but no oil is at present made from them.

Bdellium, if it is benzoin, amomum, and cardamomum were perhaps rather imported through Media than the actual produce of the country, which is too cold in the winter to grow any good spices.
The mineral products of Media noted by the ancient writers are nitre, salt, and certain gems, as emeralds, lapis lazuli, and the following obscurer kinds, the zathene, the gassinades, and the narcissitis.

The nitre of Media is noticed by Pliny, who says it was procured in small quantities, and was called "halmyraga." It was found in certain dry-looking glens, where the ground was white with it, and was obtained there purer than in other places.