Trends In Economic Botany: The Rising Use Of Herbal Supplements :: Botany

Trends In stintingal Botany The Rising Use Of Herbal SupplementsThe design of herbal remedies to extend health problems in humans is a tradition that dates back many centuries. A precursor to modern, western sandwich pharmaceuticals, traditional healers used herbs to treat a wide range of ailments and afflictions. While many are familiar with their use by American Indians, the practice of herbal therapy dates back to ancient Chinese and Egyptian healers. Herbs were used in ancient times to treat anything from headaches (with willow bark tea, now an active ingredient in aspirin) to fever and premenstrual syndrome (with chamomile). In an age of modern pharmaceuticals and their ready availability in Western culture, it is easy to forget that approximately 40% of todays modern euphonys are produced with chemicals derived from plants (Counter 1998).In a trend reversal that has the modern medical community appal and puzzled, the gross sales of herbal remedies in the Untied States ha s increased spectacularally. Traditionally, Europe has been the largest merchandise for herbal remedies, accounting for 45% or $7.5 billion in sales for 1997 (Scimone and Scimone 1998). Within Europe, Germany dominates the market with sales of $3.6 billion, followed by France ($1.8 billion), Italy ($800 million) and the United Kingdom ($ three hundred million) (Scimone and Scimone 1998). Growth in the European market was predicted to be 5-10% in 1998-1999 and 15-20% in 1999-2000 (Scimone and Scimone 1998). The European market has hold up solidly established over the agone 80 historic period, with a modest growth rate until recent age that has shown another upward trend.The United States market is a completely antithetical story. The herbal industry has evolved exponentially over the past two years, with square entry into the mass market within the past two years (Botanicals International 1998). Sales of herbal supplements reached $4 billion in 1998, up from $1.6 billion in 19 94 , a rise of 250% (American Botanical Council 1998). Sales sustain been projected to increase between 50-100% in 1998-99 and between 20-25% in 2000-01(Scimone and Scimone 1998). What has caused this dramatic increase?While an editorial in the New England Journal of treat (1998) blamed this reversion to irrational approaches on disillusionment with the often travel rapidly and impersonal care delivered by conventional physicians, it is also viewed as the economic influence of the aging baby-boomers. As they have become older, this generation has become more health conscious and increasingly dissatisfied with conventional medicine in their attempts to diminish the adverse effects of aging (Brenneman 1999).