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About Herbal Medicine
Herbal medicine, also called botanical medicine or phytomedicine,
refers to the use of plants' seeds, berries, roots, leaves, bark, or
flowers for medicinal purposes. Herbalism has a long tradition of use
outside of conventional medicine. It is becoming more popular as
improvements are made in analysis and quality control, along with
advances in clinical research that show the value of herbal medicine
in treating and preventing disease.
Plants were used for medicinal purposes long before recorded
history. Ancient Chinese and Egyptian papyrus writings describe
medicinal uses for plants as early as 3,000 BC. African and Native
American peoples used herbs in their healing rituals, while others
developed traditional medical systems such as Ayurveda and
Traditional Chinese Medicine in which herbs are used for healing.
Researchers found that people in different parts of the world tended
to use the same or similar plants for the same purposes. In the early
19th century, when chemical analysis first became available,
scientists began to extract and modify the active ingredients in
plants. Later, chemists began making their own version of plant
compounds and, over time, the use of herbal medicines declined in
favor of drugs.
Almost one fourth of pharmaceutical drugs are derived from
botanicals. Recently, the World Health Organization estimated that
80% of people worldwide rely on herbal medicines for some part of
their primary health care. In Germany, about 600 to 700 plant-based
medicines are available and are prescribed by some 70% of German
physicians. In the past 20 years in the United States, public
dissatisfaction with the cost of prescription medications, combined
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