Medicines from Plants with Special Reference to Herbal Products in Great Britain

Abstract

Plants have been used as medicinal agents from the earliest days of man's existence. But over the years the rational use of plant materials became intermingled with their irrational use and this was the situation in Great Britain at the end of the 17th century when there was the beginning of a major change in the social life of the country and people began to leave the villages. The establishment of large industrial connurbations led to the introduction of herbal products based on both useful and useless plants. They were the main source of medication for the working class until the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948 after which their sales declined.

However, during the past 20 years there has been a resurgence of interest in medicines prepared from plants but modern scientific knowledge about plants and their constituents makes it essential that more effective herbal products should be made available for sale to the general public. The Department of Health intends to ensure this but there are many problems, which are probably common to other countries, that have to be overcome in order to achieve this objective.

1 Sometime President, Medical Plants Section, F.I.P.