ABSTRACT
The widespread circulation and contemporary uses of so-called ‘traditional medicines’ have been the topic of numerous debates, both in their country of origin where they may be subjected to revitalisation policies, and in Western countries due to their growing success among the Western public. While these medicines are not recognised in the West as therapeutic systems, some food ingredients, derived from their materia medica, or recommended for their medical properties, are sold as foods or food supplements, labelled as ‘traditional foods’, and available in European organic shops, parapharmacies and on the internet. According to their promoters, these ‘traditional’ foods owe some of their success to their therapeutic and preventive qualities; they are used in ‘healthy diets’ and prescribed as ‘nutritional therapies’ by some Western alternative therapists for their supposed health beneficial proprieties. This emphasis on food questions the contemporary social uses and appropriation processes of these pharmacopeias by Western therapists from the world of alternative medicine.
