ABSTRACT
Herbs and herbal therapies are available for almost every disease and health condition, and from a wide variety of healing systems. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 80 percent of the world’s population uses herbal remedies for some aspect of health care. In many developing countries, traditional medicine is still the main source of primary health care and medicinal herbs play a major role (“traditional medicine” refers to systems of healing that are not based on the Western scientific approach). China and the Indian subcontinent have developed the two most widely known systems, referred to respectively as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic medicine. In both of these healing systems, herbs have a significant role and are increasingly gaining attention from Western medicine.
