Herbal medicine is a traditional practice of medicine based on the use of plants and plant extracts. People from all over the world have been using hundreds to thousands of plants for treatment since prehistoric time.

A herb is a flowering plant whose stem above ground does not become woody. In medicinal use any part of the plant is considered herb, including leaves, roots, flowers, seeds, resin, etc. Sometimes minerals, fungi, bee products, animal parts are also considered as components of herbal medicine.

Many plants synthetize substances that are useful in treating health problems. All plants produce primary metabolites such as sugars and fats. Secondary metabolites are found in a smaller range of plants and their functions are varied. For example, toxins are used to deter predation, pheromones attract insects for pollination, alleochemicals inhibit rival plants that are competing for soil and light.

It is the secondary metabolites and pigments that can have therapeutic actions and which can be refined to produce drugs. The word drug comes from the Dutch “druug” (Drogue in French) which means ‘dried plant’.

Herbalists consider that herbs can help the patient to resist diseases and provide nutritional and immunological support that pharmaceuticals lack. Pharmaceutical medicine isolates particular phytochemicals using them as a single ingredient. On the other hand, herbal medicine is using extracts from plants such as roots or leaves without isolating any particular phytochemicals.

Herbal treatment is a very rapidly growing industry in the western world. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 25 percent of modern drugs used in United States derive from plants. More and more people are realizing the dangers of conventional medication and looking for more natural solutions.