Foreword Everyone involved in the delivery of health-care is now aware of the increased interest in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), especially herbal or botanical medicine. According to several recent North American surveys, a growing number of people are using some form of complementary or alternative medicine, 15-25% of the population in Canada, for example, which is comparable to a much-quoted New England Journal of Medicine report that 34% of American survey respondents had used at least one unconventional therapy in the past year. Significantly, only one-third of these people reported seeing a complementary healthcare provider, indicating a high level of self-medication. Botanical or herbal medicine is becoming big business for pharmacists A "Trends Report" in Pharmacy Post indicated that three out of every four Canadian community pharmacies now sell herbal and/or homeopathic products and that approximately half of those surveyed intended to increase these sections. Another report suggests that the average "medium sized" community pharmacy in Canada sells at least 35 plant-derived products (including natural source vitamins), marketed by at least 8 phyto-pharmaceutical manufacturers. In addition, Pharmacy Practice reported that Canadians spent $175 million on herbal products in 1996, which is an increase from the $150 million spent in 1995. Similar trends prevail in the United States. The popularity of herbal medicine continues to grow day-by-day. Although some see botanical medicine as a new "niche" for pharmacy, the debate about whether botanical medicine belongs in pharmacies or in health food stores is becoming heated among pharmacists and physicians. The opponents of the sale of botanical products in pharmacies emphasize the fact that most pharmacists have little or no training in this field and perpetuate the notion that herbs have not been "scientifically" tested for their medicinal action and safety in human studies. Patients are looking for authoritative information about medicinal herbs -- their effectiveness, their safety, and standard dosages -- that they can rely on for 'self medication' and that they can bring to the attention of their physician or pharmacist for their preventative or therapeutic effects. While questions about echinacea and ginseng could once be ignored as a passing trend, now healthcare professionals are expected to be knowledgeable about many common herbs. This book is written for the patient and the healthcare professional looking for current and authoritative scientific information so as to improve understanding of the medical properties of common herbs and to promote communication between patient and doctor. Initially, this project was planned as a correspondence course with the objective of training pharmacists about botanical medicine. After much deliberation, it was decided that the best approach would be to prepare a series of monographs reviewing the herbal medicines most often seen by pharmacists in clinical practice . A very special team had to be created to make sure this project was a success. As the one of the primary sites of training in CAM in Canada, the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (CCNM) agreed to manage the day-to-day running of the program. In order, to ensure that the information was correct and balanced, an advisory board of experts was established to review all the material. The majority of the monographs were also submitted to the Canadian Council on Continuing Education in Pharmacy (CCCEP) for its approval. The project was completed in the summer of 1998, which culminated in the publication of the reference book The Botanical Pharmacy in 1999, addressed specifically to pharmacists and botanical medicine professionals. In 2003, the information was up-dated to include research conducted in the interim, revised to increase the accessibility of the information for the common reader, and published as The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to the 50 Most Common Medicinal Herbs . One of the cornerstones of pharmaceutical and medical care is helping patients and customers to make informed decisions about their healthcare. Likewise, patients owe it to themselves to learn as much as possible about any preventative or therapeutic treatment they may be considering. As patients' options expand to include botanical medicine or medicinal herbs as an acceptable form of healthcare, pharmacists and physicians are being asked to wade through large amounts of (mis)information to help patients make the most informed choices possible. When patients choose to make use of botanical products, it is important for pharmacists and physicians to provide monitoring and report adverse effects as well as herb-drug or herb-herb interactions when necessary. This potential new role requires a pharmacist or physician who has a good working knowledge of botanical medicine and can apply problem-solving skills to "fill in the gaps" of our current knowledge of these products. The authors hope that this book will provide healthcare professionals with a foundation of knowledge from which they can counsel patients about the use of botanical products with confidence. For patients and consumers, while this book will not answer all your questions about medicinal herbs, we hope that it will be a useful resource for understanding the safe use of these herbs and for posing informed questions to your pharmacist or physician. Your good health is what we all want to ensure. Excerpted from The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to the 50 Most Common Medicinal Herbs by Heather Boon, Michael J. Smith, Michael Smith All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
