1. Archeological evidence suggests that medicinal herbs have been used for at least 60,000 years. The first chemically derived drug was acetylsalicylic acid, composed of salicylic acid (from various sources including meadowsweet and willow tree bark) combined with an acetyl group. A chemist, Felix Hoffman at the Bayer Company in Germany first gave it, to his rheumatic father, who could no longer take salicylic acid due to GI irritation.

Griggs, Barbara Green Pharmacy, Healing Arts Press, Rochester, Vermont, (1981), 1996
Robbers, James E. Pharmacognosy and Pharmacobiotechnology, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1996

2. Traditional medicine was popular in the United States until the Flexner Report in 1911. This report was sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for the Advancement of Education and written by Abraham Flexner. It basically took over an investigation of medical schools initiated by the American Medical Association. In addition to a purported objective evaluation of medical school facilities, it appears to have been inspired by the following philosophy:

• America needed a new, scientific medicine based on anatomy, pathology, bacteriology, physiology and pharmacology
• Pharmacology was vital to medicine…"(Pharmacology) rapidly pruned away exaggeration and superstition…(and) ascertained…the utter uselessness of dozens of concoctions with which the digestive capacity of the race has long been taxed." It goes on to say…"Given this or that condition…cannot an agent be devised capable of combating it?" Botany was no longer necessary…"Materia Medica, now much shrunken, need concern itself only with the pharmaceutical side, aiming to familiarize the student with drugs of proved power and the most agreeable and effective forms in which these may be administered."
• In regards to other therapeutic modalities, only brief reference is given…"Therapeutics subsequently adds to these agents whatever resources the clinician has accumulated - baths, electricity, massage, psychic suggestion, dietetics, etc."

This philosophy explains the incredible success, subsequently, of the large pharmaceutical industry. The Flexner report focussed on disease, rather than health, and nutrition is only mentioned briefly, as quoted above. Medical care was neglected in favor of "cure" and the other basic sciences of epidemiology, economics and sociology were excluded from the proposed curriculum.

Griggs, Barbara Green Pharmacy, see reference above

3. Patent law does not allow a pharmaceutical patent for a phytochemical that has ever appeared in the scientific literature. New drug development costs approximately 300 million dollars. These two facts help explain the absence of pharmaceutical phytochemical products in this country.

4. In 1985, the World Health Organization estimated that approximately 80% of the world's population rely on herbs for primary health care needs.

Farnsworth N, et al, Medicinal plants in therapy. Bull World Health Org 63, 965-981, 1985

5. 30-40% of physicians in France and Germany uses primarily herbs in their practice. The most widely prescribed drug in Germany is ginkgo biloba

Wagner H, Interview in HerbalGram 17, 16-17, 1988
Cott, Jerry, NCDEU Update, Psychopharmacology Bulletin 31(4): 745-751, 1995

6. Until 1930, all pharmaceuticals were derived from herbs

7. Currently, 25% of prescription drugs contain constituents obtained from plants including digoxin, codeine, colchicine, vincristine, taxol, yohimbine, atropine, cocaine, ephedrine, ergotamine guaiacol, khellin, morphine, physostigmine, quinine, and salicylic acid. Approximately 50% of the 150 billion pharmaceutical markets consist of drugs of natural origin.

Robbers, James E. Pharmacognosy and Pharmacobiotechnology, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1996

8. The current market for herbal products in the United States is at least 1.5 billion. Worldwide, sales of Ginkgo biloba alone is approximately ˝ billion dollars.

Cott, Jerry, NCDEU Update, Psychopharmacology Bulletin 31(4): 745-751, 1995

9. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 marks a new age in the United States for natural product research and marketing. Recognizing the increasing popularity of alternative methods and products in the health care industry, the act notes the following:

• The importance of nutrition and benefits of dietary supplements for health and prevention of disease are increasingly well documented in scientific studies.
• Their use will limit the incidence of chronic diseases and reduce long-term health expenditures.
• There is a growing need for dissemination of information linking nutrition and long-term good health. Consumers should be empowered to make choices based on scientific data.
• National surveys show that almost 50% of Americans regularly consume dietary supplements and place increasing reliance on non-traditional health care providers.
• An estimated 600 dietary supplement manufacturers in the United States produce approximately 4,000 products with annual sales of at least 4 billion.
• The Federal Government should not impose unreasonable regulatory barriers on the flow of safe products and accurate information to customers.
• A rational Federal framework must be established to supersede the current ad hoc regulatory policy on dietary supplements.

Cott, Jerry, NCDEU Update, see reference above

10. Medical mainstreaming of herbal medicine is slowly occurring in the United States. There is now a PDR(Physician's Desk Reference for herbal medicine) and the German Commission E Monographs on herbal medicine has been translated and published by The American Botanical Council.

phone: 707-528-4372 · toll-free: 1-800-896-1484
fax: 707-528-1015 · email: farmacopia@pacbell.net

Use of this site indicates you have agreed to the following User Agreement.