Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine

In the twenty years since the first edition of this encyclopedia in 1996, herbal medicine has gone through unprecedented change. Herbs, which have always been the principal form of medicine in developing countries, have again become popular in the developed world, as people strive to stay healthy in the face of chronic stress and pollution, and to treat illness with medicines that work in concert with the body’s defenses. A quiet revolution has been taking place. Tens of millions of people now take herbs such as ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba, p. 100) to help maintain mental and physical health, and increasingly people consult trained herbal professionals and naturopaths for chronic or routine health problems. Increasingly too, scientific evidence is accumulating to show that herbal medicines can provide treatment that is as effective as conventional medicines but with few side effects. Sales of herbal medicines continue to grow year after year—by over 50 percent in the U.S. since 2000—and several mainstream pharmaceutical companies now manufacture and market herbal medicines.