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The science of herbal medicine has been in existence nearly 60,000 years ago. Up to this date, herbal medicine continues to increase in popularity even in the Western world. The dangers it has is that its effect when combined with common prescribed medicines is not known.
Herbalism, also called as phytotherapy, is a folk and traditional medical practice of using plants and plant extracts. Discovering a plant’s ability to heal was an idea from ancient times. Treating different ailments, which date back to prehistoric times, were done by using hundreds or nearly thousands of indigenous plants. There was proof that the Neanderthals used plants as medicines 60,000 years ago. To this day, these plants are still used extensively in ethnomedicine worldwide. The ability of plants to synthesize aromatic substances, majority of them phenols or oxygen-substituted derivatives are limitless. These substances have been used as defense mechanisms against predation from microorganisms, insects, and herbivores. Useful medicinal compounds are produced from these herbs and spices. In recent years, using plant-derived drugs as dietary supplements increased. The earth has been scoured by pharmacologists, microbiologists, botanists, and natural-products chemists in order to treat various diseases. Herbal use in the treatment of disease is nearly global in non-industrialized countries. Traditional practices were dominant in the field of herbal medicine in the Western world at the conclusion of the twentieth century. Biological background Production of chemical compounds was a part of the usual metabolic activities of all plants. These compounds can be broken down into primary metabolites which are present in all plants. Smaller range of plants may contain secondary metabolites. Dangers In general, there is an existing misconception that using natural products is a guarantee of its safety. The chemical defense mechanisms against predators found in many plants may have adverse effects on humans. Aside from that, there are also unwanted side-effects of herbs just as pharmaceutical products have. The lack of control over dosage and purity are problems that aggravate the situation. Medical interaction Using herbal remedies requires the prescription of a physician, due to the fact that some herbal remedies are potentially capable of causing unwanted drug interactions when combined with prescribed over-the-counter medicines. Combining a herbal remedy that lowers low blood pressure with a medical prescription with the same effect may result to dangerous blood pressure levels. Because of their limited knowledge of herbal medicines, physicians may not be the best source of information about herbal medicine. Information about the interaction of herbal medicines with pharmaceuticals is limited due to the fact that, contrary to pharmaceutical medicine, reporting or publishing adverse results is not recorded by any official system, database, or hotline, so that awareness of adverse interactions may not be known to herbalists.
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