Leaves Of Life - - - Botanicals

Leaves of Life Botanicals cites the enormous importance of the natural world of plants at a time when plant resources are decreasing at a rapid rate. No other time in history have human beings placed such importance on the natural world of plants.  Conservative estimates state that there are about 250,000 species of higher plants on this planet.[1]  The National Cancer Institute (NCI), over a period of 30 years, screened more than 32,000 higher plant species for their ability to inhibit various tumors.[2]  While industrialized countries during the last hundred years have gradually reduced the use of plant remedies and medicinal plants are threatened by extinction through exploitation of natural vegetation.  Guyana, which lies at the point where the Caribbean meets South America on its North Atlantic seaboard, consists of eighty percent rainforest and is home to one of the richest regions of the world with expanses of untouched neotropical forests and different species of plants found nowhere else on earth.[3] 

Plants have fed the world and cured its ills since time immemorial.  About 80% of the world depends on herbal-based alternative systems of medicine.[4] Consumer demand for natural medicines is higher than ever before. Both in Europe and in the United States consumers spend at least $4 billion a year on herbal medicinal products.[5] Many of these plants are researched to develop scientific evidence based rational herbal therapies.  Much is not yet known regarding the vast pharmacology of herbal remedies.  Less than ten percent of all plant species have been subjected to investigations of secondary metabolites and their effects.[6]  The Chinese pharmacopeia depends on the 5,757 plants listed in the Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Substances.[7] The Indian Ayurveda pharmacopeia boasts between 1,000[8] and 2,000 medicinal plants[9] while the total number of medicinal herbs in the world is about 70,000. [10] The German compendium Arzneidrogenprojile contains the profiles of about 200 commonly used medicinal herbs.[11] 

Plants produce a wide variety of chemical compounds called phytochemicals.  There was a big upsurge in the popularity of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the United States in the 1990s. A survey showed the use of herbal medicines increased from 2.5% in 1990 to 12.1% in 1997. The usage of CAM is generally more frequent among women and people in the 35 to 49 age groups.  In the western United States research results showed that the prevalence of herbal use among ethnically diverse primary care patients varies, ranging from thirty percent among primary care patients residing in urban setting on the West coast to seventy seven percent among primary care patients residing in the largest United States/Mexico border city. Herbal use is common (36%) among urban multi-ethnic primary care patients, but has a wide variability among ethnic groups. Hispanic and Asian groups reported the highest rates of herbal use (50%), and African Americans reported the lowest (22%) rates.[12]

[1] Chadwick, Derek J., and Joan Mash. Bioactive Compounds from Plants: A Wiley-Interscience Publication. Chichester [etc.: John Wiley & Sons, 1990; 5.
[2] Ibid., 3.
[3] Leeuwenberg, A.J.M. Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of the Tropics. Wagenlngen: Center for Agricultural Publishing and Documentation, 1987; 26.
[4] Daniel, M. Medicinal Plants: Chemistry and Properties. New Hampshire: Science Publishers, 2006; 17.
[5] Duke, James A. CRC Handbook of Medicinal Herbs. Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 1985; 459.
[6] Leeuwenberg, A.J.M. Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of the Tropics. Wagenlngen:  Center for Agricultural Publishing and Documentation, 1987; 9.
[7]Daniel, M. Medicinal Plants: Chemistry and Properties. New Hampshire: Science Publishers, 2006; 17.
[8] Ahmad Iqbal,  Aqil Farrukh and Owais Mohammad. Modern Phytomedicine: Turning Medical Plants into Drugs. Germany: Wiley-Vch Verlag Gmbh & Co. KGaA, 2006; 64.
[9]Daniel, M. Medicinal Plants: Chemistry and Properties. New Hampshire: Science Publishers, 2006; 17.
[10] Leeuwenberg, A.J.M. Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of the Tropics. Wagenlngen:  Center for Agricultural Publishing and Documentation, 1987; 9.
[11] Gehrmann, Beatrice, Wolf-Gerald Koch, Tschirch Claus O., and Brinkmann, Helmut, Medicinal Herbs: A Compendium. New York: The Haworth Herbal, 2005; ix.
[12] Ahmad, Iqbal, Farrukh Aqil, and Mohammad Owais. Modern Phytomedicine: Turning Medical Plants into Drugs. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, 2006; 343.

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