Herbal medicines are the friends of the physicians

 

Herbal medicine is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. Herbal medicines are those with active ingredients made from plant parts, such as leaves, roots or flowers. The scope of herbal medicine commonly includes fungal and bee products, as well as minerals, shells and certain animal parts. Herbal medicine is also called phytomedicine or phytotherapy.

Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within the folk beliefs of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before the era of modern medicine. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medicine as "the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness". Traditional medicine is often contrasted with scientific medicine.

The World Health Organization estimates that 80 percent of the population of some Asian and African countries presently use herbal medicine and traditional medicine for some aspect of primary health care.