UC Irvine

The therapeutic use of botanicals-commonly referred to as phytotherapy and herbal medicine-began thousands of years ago in medicinal practices around the world and has recently gained popularity in Western medicine. Herbal medicine is now considered an integral part of health care on a global scale. For many nations, herbal medicine is considered to be the first-line therapy; up to 50% of medicinals in China are traditional herbals, and for more than half of the children in African nations such as Nigeria and Ghana, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that herbs are considered firstline therapy for malaria-related fevers. In the United States, a 2007 National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) joint survey indicated that 38% of adults use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), with natural and herbal remedies being the most prominent modality (http://nccam.nih.gov/news/camstats/2007).