ABSTRACT
Medicine.......................................................................................................................... 465 12.4.5 Issues for Healthcare Providers ...................................................................................... 465 12.4.6 Regulatory, Legal, and Ethical Considerations .............................................................. 466 12.4.7 Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Public Health....................................... 467
12.5 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................. 468 References .............................................................................................................................................. 469
Throughout history, natural products from plants have played major, sustaining roles in the lives of humans, especially for food sources and for medicinal products. It is, therefore, appropriate that we take up initially the topic of food plants as sources of medicines, as compiled by Maureen McKenzie. Then, we cite two notable case studies on the uses of plant natural products: one on kudzu (
Pueraria montana
) by James Hoyt, and the second on neem (
Azadirachta indica
) by P. Dayanandan. We end the chapter with an in-depth account by Carl Li on the risks of complementary and alternative therapies.
