ABSTRACT
The spectacular resurgence of use of medicinal plants by Western society has been parallelled by a fast growing scientific interest. Medicinal plant researchers often forget to evaluate the traditional knowledge that existed about the plant or drug in question before they came along. Biological screening can be performed on plants collected at random or on a selected group of plants, for example, medicinal plants used in a special area or in a certain cultural complex. The phytochemical screening should be carried out with determined amounts of plant material to make possible objective comparisons. Pharmacological screening is only a first step in the search for and development of plant-derived pharmaceuticals. N. R. Farnsworth et al. have shown that many criteria can be used for the selection of potential sedative plants. Pharmacological screening is only a first step in the search for and development of plant-derived pharmaceuticals.
