From the beginning of human civilization, people have depended on plants to cure disease, promote healing of injuries, and alleviate pain. In many places that has changed very little. In the West, however, herbal and botanical cures have long been ignored in favor of ‘scientific medicine.’ But the benefits of medicinal plants are being rediscovered in many developed countries, where consumers are turning to such therapies in place of, and in addition to, Western medical treatments. And, all over the world, the drive to lower the cost of health care has made herbals and botanicals an attractive alternative to more expensive synthetic remedies.
In 1978, the World Health Organization responded to increased interest in medicinal plants by convening a series of international consultations, seminars, and symposia to explore and promote the use of medicinal plants. Medicinal Plants presents the proceedings of the last of these symposia, held in 1993. It brings together an vast range of information and presents an overview of the use of medicinal plants that includes a discussion of a variety of issues—scientific, economic, regulatory, agricultural, cultural—focused on the importance of medicinal plants to primary health care and global health care reform.
Table of Content
Preface: Promoting the Worldwide Use of Medicinal Plants
—Timothy R. Tomlinson
Acknowledgments
MEDICINAL PLANTS, SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS, AND DEVELOPMENT
1. A Case History of Plant-Derived Drug Research: Phyllanthus and Hepatitis B Virus
—Baruch S. Blumberg, M.D.
2. An Expanded Program for Medicinal Plants
—Olayiwola Akerele, M.D.
MEDICINAL PLANTS IN THE SOCIOECONOMIC CONTEXT
3. Exploiting Medicinal Plants: Why Do It the Hard Way?
—Nathan Sivin, Ph.D.
4. Safety, Efficacy, and the Use of Medicinal Plants
—Norman R. Farnsworth, Ph.D.
5. Economics and Medicinal Plants
—Peter P. Principe
6. The Medicinal Plant Marketplace
—Robert S. Mc Caleb
CONSERVATION: ISSUES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
7. Linking Ethnopharmacology and Tropical Forest: Conservation in Belize
—Michael J. Balick, Ph.D.
8. Exploitation of Medicinal Plants
—Akhtar Husain, Ph.D.
9. Agronomics and Medicinal Plants
—Dan Palevitch, Ph.D.
10. The Role of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta in Traditional Medicine: A Personal Reflection and Case Study
—William Mc Kinley Klein, Jr., Ph.D.
PROMISING PRACTICES IN THE USE OF MEDICINAL PLANTS
11. The Legal Situation of Phytomedicines in Germany
—Barbara Steinhoff, Ph.D.
12. Indonesia: The Utilization of Medicinal Plants for Primary Health Care
—Djoko Hargono, Ph.D.
13. Ethnopharmacological Surveys in Brazilian Extractive Reserves
—Elaine Elisabetsky, Ph.D.
14. Traditional Korean Medicine
—Chong-Yul Kim, Ph.D.
15. Utilization and Conservation of Medicinal Plants in China with Special Reference to Atractylodes lancea
—He, Shan-An
16. Medicinal Plants in the Philippines
—Nelia P. Cortes-Maramba, M.D.
17. Promising Practices in the Use of Medicinal Plants in the United States
—Ara H. Dermarderosian, Ph.D.
REGULATORY ISSUES
18. Medicinal Plants and Phytomedicines within the European Community
—Hubertus Cranz, Ph.D.
19. The Evolving Status of Herbals and Phytomedicines in the United States
—Robert G. Pinco, Esq.
Appendices
A. WHO Guidelines for the Assessment of Herbal Medicines
B. A Recommendation for Governments around the World
List of Contributors
Index
About the author
Timothy R. Tomlinson is former Associate Director of the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania. Olayiwolda Akerele is former manager of the Traditional Medicine Programme of the World Health Organization.More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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