ABSTRACT
Definitions Herbs are defined in several ways, depending on the context in which the word is used. In botanical nomenclature, the word refers to nonwoody seed-producing plants that die to the ground at the end of the growing season. In the culinary arts, it refers to vegetable products used to add flavor or aroma to food. But in the field of medicine, the term has a different, yet specific, meaning. Here it is most accurately defined as crude drugs of vegetable origin utilized for the treatment of disease states, often of a chronic nature, or to attain or to maintain a condition of improved health. Pharmaceutical preparations made by extracting herbs with various solvents to yield tinctures, fluidextracts, extracts, or the like are known as phytomedicinals (plant medicines).
