Vikos doctors were folk healers or practical medical practitioners from the Greek area of Zagori in the 18–19th century.
The Vikos doctors[1] hailed from the area of central Zagori and particularly from the villages of Tsepelovo, Frangades [el], Papingo, Skamneli, Koukouli, Monodendri and Kapesovo.
One named Paschaloglou from Kapesovo even became a confidente of four Sultans: Abdul Hamit I, Suleiman III, Mustafa IV and Mahmut II.
It is also said that two Vikos doctors, Pantazis Exarchou and Zonias, used fungi to treat infected wounds well before penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming.
Other plants with suspected or known medicinal properties were also in their repertory and grow abundantly in the area, among them the lemon balm Melissa officinalis, St John's Wort Hypericum perforatum, absinth Artemisia absinthium and the elder bush Sambucus nigra