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| States, herbal medicines have been an integral part of the healthcare system of most every other country on the face of the earth for generations. |
| The FDA oversees the development of therapeutic products. Besides trying to ensure the safety of our food supply, it has the responsibility to assure that the drugs and medical devices we use are safe and effective. This drug approval process has been estimated to cost approximately $300 to $500 million per drug. Because of the astronomical expense of obtaining drug approval, companies are reluctant to expend such exorbitant amounts of money on an herb, a natural product that they cannot patent. Without patent protection, anyone could go out and market chamomile or echinacea, for instance, and the company that researched its effectiveness would have little chance to recoup its investment. Therefore, little herb research is conducted in the U.S. and few if any data regarding herbs are submitted to the FDA. |
| Of the numerous drugs used by physicians today, 65 percent were originally derived from plants, and these were derived from only a small sampling of plant species. We learned of these drugs primarily from traditional peoples who had mastered their uses, and their effectiveness was subsequently verified by scientific researchers in laboratories and clinics. Americans are just now beginning to recognize that there is a vast, unexplored world of botanical remedies waiting to be tapped into. Nature's pharmacy, with all of her roots, flowers, leaves, fruits, seeds and barks, has been evolving, ripening and maturing for a millennium, and is primed to fill therapeutic niches that researchers in laboratories have not yet even dreamed about. Echinaceathe beautiful purple conefloweris but one of these valuable medicines. |
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