 History of Herbal Medicine and Natural Supplements
Many plants contain substances that are useful to the maintenance of health in humans and other animals. Some of these plants produce herbs and spices which are used by humans to season food and yield useful medicinal compounds.
People on all continents have used hundreds to thousands of different types of herbal medicine for treatment of ailments since
prehistoric times. There is evidence from the Shanidar Cave in Iraq that suggests Neanderthals living 60,000 years
ago used medicinal plants. A body that was unearthed there had been buried with eight species of plants which are
still widely used in ethnomedicine around the world.
The first generally accepted use of plants as healing agents was depicted in the cave paintings discovered in the
Lascaux caves in France, which have been radiocarbon-dated to between 13,000 - 25,000 BCE. Medicinal herbs were
found in the personal effects of an "Ice man," whose body was frozen in the Swiss Alps for more than 5,300 years,
which appear to have been used to treat the parasites found in his intestines.
Anthropologists theorize that over time, and with insight, instinct, and trial-and-error, a base of knowledge would
have been acquired within early tribal communities. As this knowledge base expanded over the generations, the specialized role of the herbalist emerged. The process would likely have occurred in varying manners within a wide
diversity of cultures.
Indigenous healers often claim to have learned by observing that sick animals change their food preferences to
nibble at bitter herbs they would normally reject. Field biologists have provided corroborating evidence based on
observation of diverse species, such as chimpanzees, chickens, sheep and butterflies. Lowland gorillas take 90% of
their diet from the fruits of Aframomum melegueta, a relative of the ginger plant, that is a potent antimicrobial
and apparently keeps shigellosis and similar infections at bay. Researchers from Ohio Wesleyan University found that
some birds select nesting material rich in antimicrobial agents which protect their young from harmful bacteria.
Sick animals tend to forage plants rich in secondary metabolites, such as tannins and alkaloids. Since these
phytochemicals often have antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and antihelminthic properties, a plausible case can
be made for self-medication by animals in the wild.
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:
Many of the pharmaceuticals currently available to physicians have a long history of use as herbal remedies,
including opium, aspirin, digitalis, and quinine. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 80 percent of
the world's population presently uses herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care. Herbal medicine is a
major component in all traditional medicine systems, and a common element in Ayurvedic, homeopathic, naturopathic,
traditional Chinese medicine, and Native American medicine. According to the WHO, 74% of 119 modern plant-derived
pharmaceutical medicines are used in ways that are similar to their traditional uses. Major pharmaceutical companies
are currently conducting extensive research on plant materials gathered from the rainforests and other places for
possible new pharmaceuticals.
The use of, and search for, drugs and dietary supplements derived from plants have accelerated in recent years.
Pharmacologists, microbiologists, botanists, and natural-products chemists are combing the Earth for phytochemicals
and leads that could be developed for treatment of various diseases. In fact, approximately 25% of modern drugs used
in the United States have been derived from plants.
Three quarters of plants that provide active ingredients for prescription drugs came to the attention of researchers
because of their use in traditional medicine.
Among the 120 active compounds currently isolated from the higher plants and widely used in modern medicine today,
75 percent show a positive correlation between their modern therapeutic use and the traditional use of the plants
from which they are derived.
More than two thirds of the world's plant species - at least 35,000 of which are estimated to have medicinal value -
come from the developing countries. At least 7,000 medical compounds in the modern pharmacopoeia are derived from plants.
A survey released in May 2004 by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine focused on who used
complementary and alternative medicines, what was used, and why it was used. The survey was limited to adults, aged
18 years and over during 2002, living in the United States. According to this survey, herbal therapy, or use of
natural products other than vitamins and minerals, was the most commonly used therapy (18.9%) when all use of prayer
was excluded.
In 2004 the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of Health
began funding clinical trials into the effectiveness of herbal medicine. Surveys of a scientific approach to herbal
medicine can be found in the books Evidence-based herbal medicine, and Herbal and traditional medicine: molecular
aspects of health.
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