ABSTRACT
The popularity of self-medication or prescribed therapeutic intervention with herbal products has burgeoned. These “natural” supplements have been traditionally promoted and used for centuries in Asian and Indian medicine and later, in American folk medicine. The use of herbal remedies incorporates numerous botanical products, each claimed to contain curative or preventive compounds for a variety of disease states. The effectiveness of the herbs, however, is mostly based on empirical experience gathered over time. Documentation of the history of the medicines as recorded in Chinese and Indian pharmaceutical compendia has also contributed to the empirical database. Indications for which an herbal product is deemed useful are listed under several major categories. The primary indications are those approved by Commission E. Homeopathic indications refer to some disease symptoms that could be treated by very small doses of medicine. Asian indications are based on traditional Chinese and Indian compendia and may or may not be recognized as primary indications by Western medicine.
