Herbal medicine

Herbal medicine (also called herbalism, phytomedicine or phytotherapy) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine.^[1] With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remedies, such as the anti-malarial group of drugs called artemisinin isolated from Artemisia annua, a herb that was known in Chinese medicine to treat fever.^[2]^[3] There is limited scientific evidence for the safety and efficacy of many plants used in 21st-century herbalism, which generally does not provide standards for purity or dosage.^[1]^[4] The scope of herbal medicine sometimes include fungal and bee products, as well as minerals, shells and certain animal parts.^[5]

Paraherbalism describes alternative and pseudoscientific practices of using unrefined plant or animal extracts as unproven medicines or health-promoting agents.^[1]^[4]^[6]^[7] Paraherbalism relies on the belief that preserving various substances from a given source with less processing is safer or more effective than manufactured products, a concept for which there is no evidence.^[6]

^ ^a ^b ^c "Hard to swallow". Nature. 448 (7150): 105–6. July 2007. Bibcode:2007Natur.448S.105.. doi:10.1038/448106a. PMID 17625521.
^ "This Ancient Chinese Remedy Helped Win the Nobel Prize". Time. Archived from the original on 3 November 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
^ Su, Xin-zhuan; Miller, Louis H. (November 2015). "The discovery of artemisinin and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine". Science China Life Sciences. 58 (11): 1175–1179. doi:10.1007/s11427-015-4948-7. ISSN 1674-7305. PMC 4966551. PMID 26481135.
^ ^a ^b Lack CW, Rousseau J (2016). Critical Thinking, Science, and Pseudoscience: Why We Can't Trust Our Brains. Springer Publishing Company. pp. 212–214. ISBN 9780826194268.
^ Cite error: The named reference cruk-herbs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b Tyler VE (31 August 1999). "False Tenets of Paraherbalism". Quackwatch. Archived from the original on 11 November 2009. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
^ Cite error: The named reference quackwatch was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[swallow-1] "Hard to swallow". Nature. 448 (7150): 105–6. July 2007. Bibcode:2007Natur.448S.105.. doi:10.1038/448106a. PMID 17625521.

[2] "This Ancient Chinese Remedy Helped Win the Nobel Prize". Time. Archived from the original on 3 November 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2021.

[3] Su, Xin-zhuan; Miller, Louis H. (November 2015). "The discovery of artemisinin and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine". Science China Life Sciences. 58 (11): 1175–1179. doi:10.1007/s11427-015-4948-7. ISSN 1674-7305. PMC 4966551. PMID 26481135.

[Lack2016-4] Lack CW, Rousseau J (2016). Critical Thinking, Science, and Pseudoscience: Why We Can't Trust Our Brains. Springer Publishing Company. pp. 212–214. ISBN 9780826194268.

[cruk-herbs-5] Cite error: The named reference cruk-herbs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[tyler-6] Tyler VE (31 August 1999). "False Tenets of Paraherbalism". Quackwatch. Archived from the original on 11 November 2009. Retrieved 29 October 2016.

[quackwatch-7] Cite error: The named reference quackwatch was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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