Phytotherapy herbal medicine 77 photos 65 scheme Table 58-FrancescoCapasso ... -et.al. - translation-B Natasa Milic, Nevena Runjevac Novi Sad-Prometheus 2005 (Novi Sad pPrometej-IXV 480 pp., illustrations 30cm Translation of-Phztotherapy list of medicinal plants in Latin, the Serb-English str.425-446 -Dictionary of foreign terms, p.447-461 -References -Register Review by Prof. Dr.-'Gordana Grubor-Lajšić -Prof. Neda Mimica-Djukic Asist.mr.sc.dr Vladimir Sakach The book talks about ways of preparing tea, bath and tincture of herbs and their use

1. phytotherapy, the use of plant-derived medications
in the treatment and prevention of disease. Phytotherapy is ascience-based medical practice and
thus is distinguished from other, more traditional approaches, such as medicalherbalism, which
relies on an empirical appreciation of medicinal herbs and which is often linked to traditional
knowledge. An herbalist’s approach generally has not been evaluated in controlled clinical
trials or in rigorous biomedical studies, whereas numerous trials and pharmacological studies of
specific phytotherapeutic preparations exist. The interpretation and acceptance of such evidence
for phytotherapeutic practices varies. In some countries, it is considered sufficient to license
phytotherapeutic products as medicines, whereas in other countries, phytotherapy is viewed as a
form of traditional medicine.
There are a number of phytotherapeutic preparations in use. Examples include preparations
derived from the leaves of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), which are used to treat a range of minor
cognitive disorders and certain other disorders of the central nervous system; the aerial parts of St.
John’s wort (St. Johnswort; Hypericum perforatum), which typically are used in the treatment of
mild to moderate forms of depression; the aerial parts and roots of Echinacea angustifolia (and
other species ofEchinacea), which are used in the treatment and prevention of the common
cold and other respiratory conditions; and parts of African devil’s claw (Harpagophytum
procumbens), the root of which is used to treat chronic lower back pain.
History of phytotherapy
The concept of phytotherapy originated with French physician Henri Leclerc, who first used the
term in 1913 and who published various editions of the Précis de phytothérapie (“Handbook of
Phytotherapy”), the first in 1922. Phytotherapy entered the English language with its common
definition in 1934, having been introduced by Eric Frederick William Powell, who was an English
practitioner of herbalism and homeopathy. The English term, however, did not gain wider
recognition until much later.
In 1960 German herbalist and physician Rudolf Fritz Weiss published Lehrbuch der
Phytotherapie(1960; Herbal Medicine), which became the definitive German textbook on the
topic. The work initially had been published in a different format in 1944 under the name Die
Pflanzenheilkunde in der Ärztlichen Praxis (“Plant-Based Curative Science in Medical Practice”).
Both Leclerc’s and Weiss’s approaches shared a strong focus on what later came to be described
as evidence-based medicine.
Another important landmark in the history of phytotherapy was the emergence in 1987 of the
journalPhytotherapy Research, edited by British pharmacognosist Fred Evans. In 1997 the
book Rational Phytotherapy was published under the stewardship of American pharmacognosist
Varro Tyler. The work was an English translation of the German book Rationale Phytotherapie:
Ratgeber für die Ärztliche Praxis (3rd ed., 1996), written by Volker Schulz and Rudolf Hänsel.

2.  IMAGES
 QUIZZES
 LISTS

The regulatory maze
The terminology of the various forms of treatment associated with herbal substances remains
confusing. While many consider herbal medicines with a well-defined use profile (one based on
scientific and medical evidence) as phytotherapeutic products, others consider such products to be
food supplements. The latter implies that medicines based on herbal substances are unproven
therapies, and in some countries they are treated that way. In the United States, for example, all
herbal-based products are classified as dietary supplements. To complicate matters, herbalism is
sometimes also referred to as phytotherapy, and both herbalism and phytotherapy are sometimes
described as herbal medicine. Likewise, preparations used in phytotherapy and in herbalism may
be referred to as herbal medicines or phytomedicines.
The confusion between phytotherapy and herbalism is also reflected in a complex regulatory
situation, where assessments of what can or cannot be designated a medicine differ vastly. The
differences often are the result of variations in legal frameworks that have been implemented by
countries or regions, such as the European Union. For places that have laws or regulations for
herbal products, specific requirements for quality assurance exist. The requirements are intended
to provide a relatively high level of security to consumers by regulating the quality of the product
through the supply and value chain, from the collection or wild crafting (harvesting from nature)
of plants to the manufacture and promotion of the final product. The products used in
phytotherapy generally are produced industrially by using routine procedures, which differs from
herbalism. Thus, for phytotherapy, there is a limited difference between the batches of product
sold on the market by an individual company. The composition of the same phytotherapeutic
product, however, may differ from one company to the next.
Standardization
A commonly used but often poorly defined concept in phytotherapy is standardization, which is
the requirement of having a minimum amount of one or several active compounds or groups of
compounds in the plant extract. Often a range from a minimum to a maximum amount is given. In
the field of phytotherapy, standardization applies only to extracts and by definition only to those
where the active constituents are fully characterized. For example, an extract containing a certain
percentage of compound class X (e.g., flavonoids) must contain one specific compound of the
group (e.g., the flavonoid rutin). The quantification often is carried out by using chromatography-
based techniques (e.g., gas chromatography or high-performance liquid chromatography),
capillaryelectrophoresis, atomic absorption spectroscopy, or mass spectrometry.
Standardization is intended to ensure a reproducible composition of known active constituents.
For example, St. John’s wort (H. perforatum) is used in both phytotherapy and herbalism. In the
former, the preparations often are industrially produced extracts from the leaves and plant tops
that have been standardized according to hypericin and hyperforin content (or sometimes one or
the other). These two substances are known to be relevant for their pharmacological effects. The
extract is generally formulated as tablets or capsules. By contrast, herbalists are likely to use a
tincture of H. perforatum herb that is not standardized on its content of any particular constituent.
Phytotherapy and national health care systems

3. The practice of phytotherapy differs widely throughout the world. In some countries, such
as South Korea and Japan, proven phytotherapy products are integrated into health
insurance coverage. Other countries, including China, India, and Nepal, offer wide health care
coverage for herbal medicines, which fall under traditional medicine services. In most other parts
of the world, however, such products are not integrated into health care or health insurance
programs. They are, rather, much more a patient’s private choice, and they often are sold as over-
the-counter (OTC) products, though these products may be recommended or prescribed by a wide
range of health care practitioners, including general practitioners and naturopathic doctors.
Since phytotherapy is a system of medical practice that is based on scientific or medical evidence,
its products are pharmacologically active medicines, similar to conventional pharmaceutical drugs.
Thus, phytotherapy cannot be subsumed under complementary and alternative medicine (CAM),
which generally is linked to different philosophical principles.
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