What is Scientific Phytotherapy?
Scientific Phytotherapy, also known as Phytotherapy is modern herbal biomedicine at its best. It applies scientific research and the highest professional standards to the practice of herbal medicine. Phytotherapy adapts to a recent worldwide growth in scientific information on plant-based drugs and their effective and safe use. Modern phytotherapists study the active molecules of plants and choose the most effective herbs from the best quality sources. They also base their study on the experience of traditional medicine that has been developing safe and effective remedies for thousands of years.
Around 750,000 species of plants exist on the Earth - there is an enormous potential to find and develop new medicines for incurable illnesses.
Plants as medicines: Around 1/4 of all pharmaceutical drugs currently prescribed by doctors have been derived from plants. In many European countries plants provided by doctors and pharmacists are defined as "phyto-medicines" or "phyto-pharmaceuticals". Phyto, which is the Greek for "derived from plants", merges active plant botanicals with modern science for wholesome formulas that travel to the root of the problem.
From the medicine of early civilisations to Scientific Phytotherapy
All encyclopaedias point out that herbal medicine is as old as humanity. Phytotherapy is based on the oldest and most universal system of medicine. Every early civilisation used plants as its main source of medicine, and most of the world’s population still rely on them. During various epochs the forms and methods of herbal usage were diverse and even today these forms are wide-ranging around the globe.
A green revolution in the development of Scientific Phytotherapy was given by a resolution voted in 1977 by the World Health Organization, the specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. The resolution has promoted the expansion of the Scientific Phytotherapy research: experiments and clinical tests in the field of traditional medicine and the medicinal herbs.
How does Phytotherapy work?
In Phytotherapy, plant medicines are selected mainly to stimulate or strengthen the body’s normal functions. Plant medicines contain many ingredients and may have several simultaneous therapeutic actions in the body.
Working in synergy with other fields of modern medicine
Scientific Phytotherapy is working in agreement and often in parallel with modern medicine. Phytotherapy is using similar research methods. Contemporary chemically derived medicines and antibiotics are used during the acute stages of an illness when a quick therapeutic effect is needed to save human life. When there are no appropriate medicines for certain conditions there are often phytotherapeutic preparations with proven effectiveness. We can use Phytotherapy as a biological and natural method for treatment with less side and toxicological effects on the human body.
Links to interesting Phytotherapy research journals:
HERBALGRAM, American Botanical Council
PYTOTHERAPY RESEARCH, Onlinelibrary, wiley.com