Medicinal plants and tomorrow's pharmacy: an American perspective

Abstract

Medicinal plants were among the first pharmaceuticals used in America, but the Flexner report in 1910, conventional drug introduction throughout the first half of the 20th century, and aggressive action by the FDA during the 1950s and 1960s to eliminate medicinal treatments for which no safety or efficacy data were available, essentially caused the abandonment of crude medicinal plant products for health care in America. Beginning mostly in the 1970s, however, social and political changes reintroduced the therapeutic benefits of medicinal plants to Americans seeking alternative health care. Although concerns about safety and efficacy are still issues with medicinal plants, the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) in 1994 ensured Americans access to an array of medicinal plant products and encouraged research into the pharmacological activity of medicinal plant materials. Based on current trends of prescription-drug costs and consumer desires for natural health-care products, American pharmacies of the future may well support both conventional and alternative medicine systems, enabling the consumer and the medical practitioner to choose the best medicine for the medical condition