Thursday, January 02, 2014

Herbal Medicines

From the primitive ages, human kind has strived to survive. From the beginning, human race has been trying to find the resources of nature and use them as their beneficiaries. As modern technology has been developed, treatments have become easier than before. In medical sciences, herbal medicines contribute to a bigger portion.

Herbal medicines can also be noted as Herbalism, Botanical medicine or Phytomedicine. Herbal medicines includes the effective use of plants’ berries, roots, leaves, seeds, barks or flowers with a view to better treatment. There are lots of historical proofs which indicates the usage of medicine derived from plants by human, almost 60,000 years ago. Written records indicate that Sumerians initiated the study of herbal medicines nearly 5,000 years ago.

An estimate study made by WHO shows that nearly 80% of people all over the world depend on herbal medicines. During the last 30 years, the use of herbal supplements has increased worldwide. Earlier in 19th century, in chemical analysis, the active ingredients from plants were derived. Afterwards, the use of herbals was modified by the use of new versions of plant compounds and as a result, one fourth of pharmaceutical drugs are derived from plants.

Herbal medicines are sold as tablets, capsules, syrups etc. Despite acceptance all over the world, herbal medicines are rapidly motivating the pharmaceutical industries; this term is being used more than ever. The one thing that the world can hope is the best use of natural resources, in a best way to the benefits of human beings.

1 comment: