ABSTRACT
About eighty per cent of the world depends on herbal-based alternative systems of medicine. Except for homeopathy, the activities of these curative plants are evaluated by their chemical components. An estimated 70,000 plants (including the lower plants) are used in medicine. Indian Ayurveda utilizes about 2000 plants to cure different ailments. The Chinese system depends on the 5757 plants listed in the Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Substances. Japanese and Korean systems of medicine also include a large number of medicinal herbs. In WTO perspective, all these plants are our common heritage. Utilizing all these plants for human welfare has mooted the concept of the herbal medicine or phytotherapy. Herbal medicine is now expanding at an astonishing pace due to the great inputs from ethnomedicinal practices being pooled from all over the world.
