What is Herbal Medicine ?
Herbal medicine -- also called botanical medicine or phytomedicine -- refers to using a plant's seeds, berries, roots, leaves, bark, or flowers for medicinal purposes. Herbalism has a long tradition of use outside of conventional medicine. It is becoming more mainstream as improvements in analysis and quality control along with advances in clinical research show the value of herbal medicine in the treating and preventing disease.

How do herbs work ?
In many cases, scientists aren' t sure what specific ingredient in a particular herb works to treat a condition or illness. Whole herbs contain many ingredients, and they may work together to produce a beneficial effect. Many factors determine how effective an herb will be. For example, the type of environment (climate, bugs, soil quality) in which a plant grew will affect it, as will how and when it was harvested and processed.

What is the history of herbal medicine ?

Plants had been used for medicinal purposes long before recorded history. Ancient Chinese and Egyptian papyrus writings describe medicinal uses for plants. Indigenous cultures (such as African and Native American) used herbs in their healing rituals, while others developed traditional medical systems (such as Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine) in which herbal therapies were used. Researchers found that people in different parts of the world tended to use the same or similar plants for the same purposes.

Indian History of Herbalism ?
 In Indian Herbal medicine has used many herbs such as turmeric possibly as early as 1900 B.C.  Many other herbs and minerals used in Ayurveda were later described by ancient Indian herbalists such as Charaka and Sushruta during the 1st millennium BC. The Sushruta Samhita  attributed to Sushruta in the 6th century BC describes 700 medicinal plants, 64 preparations from mineral sources, and 57 preparations based on animal sources.


Role in Modern Human Society


 The use of herbs to treat disease is almost universal among non-industrialized societies. A number of traditions came to dominate the practice of herbal medicine at the end of the twentieth century:
  • The "classical" herbal medicine system, based on Greek and Roman sources
  • The Siddha and Ayurvedic medicine systems from various South Asian Countries
  • Chinese herbal medicine (zhōngyào)
  • Traditional Africal Medicine
  • Unani - Tibb medicine
  • Shamanic herbalism : a catch-all phrase for information mostly supplied from South America and the Himalayas
  • Native American medicine.