Background
a. Why Herbal Medicine?
According to the World Health Organization, 80 per cent of the world population still depends on traditional medicines for most of their common ailments. A vast majority of the people in developing countries cannot afford health care by allopathic medicine. In Two India, more than 500 million people do not have access to proper medical care. They cannot afford the costs of allopathic medicines, surgical procedures and hospital services. They also do not have easy access to traditional systems of Indian medicine.
b. Herbal Medicine in Ancient Times
Herbal medicine traditions existed in Egypt and Babylonia since pre-historic times. Sophisticated herbal medicine systems based on thousands of years of experience with billions of patients existed since ancient times in China and India. They also existed in Europe for thousands of years.
c. Spectacular Advances in Allopathic Medicine
Patented allopathic medicines, powerful antibiotics, incredible surgical techniques and procedures, and astonishing diagnostic tools and pathology tests had mesmerized the modern world from 1950 to 1980. Such remarkable advances in medical sciences resulted in countless benefits in public health. Contagious diseases like plague, small pox, cholera, diphtheria became diseases of the past.
In light of such breakthroughs, for a few decades, the whole western world, and the urbanized and westernized non-western world firmly believed that there is a tablet or a capsule or an injection for every possible human ailment.
d. Traditional Systems of Medicine were Ignored
Consequently, western herbal medicine, and other traditional systems of medicine such as Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Yoga, Naturopathy, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) were regarded as out of date.
Folk medicines in different parts of the world and herbal medicine based on one’s own knowledge and experience or that passed on from one generation to the next generation were also ignored and neglected in the provision of health care even for common and minor ailments.
