Herbal Remedies

As per available reports about 70 journals, 32 Conferences, 10 workshops are presently dedicated exclusively to herbal remedies and about 266282 articles are being published on the current trends in herbal remedies. In terms of research annually, USA, India, Japan, Brazil and Canada are some of the leading countries where maximum studies related to industry management are being carried out. As reported in Unregulated Promotion and Sale of Herbal Remedies: A Safety and Efficacy Evaluation of Twelve Such Commercial Products Claimed to be Beneficial and Patronised for a Variety of Ailments in Nigeria, Special edition, For many centuries, medicinal plants and herbs have been part of healthcare of many countries and constitute alternative sources of therapeutic substances. Herbal drugs are increasingly used worldwide during the last few decades as seen in the rapidly growing global and national markets of herbal drugs. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) estimate, the demand for medicinal plants by the year 2050 would be about US $5 trillion annually. This rising trend in the use of herbs to treat diseases is a global phenomenon seen in both developing and developed countries. Many of the orthodox medications in use today, such as the opium, aspirin, digitalis, and quinine, have a long history of use as herbal remedies or were derived from knowledge obtained from their use in traditional medicine. The current gold standard drugs in the treatment of malaria were developed from the discovery and isolation of artemisinin from Artemisia annua L., a plant used in China for almost 2000 years. The WHO estimation is that in some Asian and African countries, 80% of the population depend on traditional medicine for primary health care and in many developed countries, 70-80% of the population had used some form of alternative or complementary medicine (e.g. acupuncture). In Germany, it has been reported that about 600-700 plant-based medicines are available and are prescribed by some 70% of German physicians and in the last 2 decades in the United States, public dissatisfaction with the cost of prescription medications, combined with an interest in returning to ‘natural’, ‘green’ or ‘organic’ remedies, has led to an increase in herbal medicines use. Most of the synthetic prescription drugs made today is based on naturally occurring substances and capabilities found in plants. There is a common misconception among consumers that because herbal remedies are “natural”, then they must automatically be safe to take. On contrast, many of natural products from plant species are poisonous and toxic to many organs. For instance, the Rhubarb plant is a nutritious vegetable, but the leaves from the Rhubarb plant, if eaten could cause someone to go into convulsions or possibly even die.

Alternative & Integrative Medicine is an academic journal – hosted by OMICS International – a pioneer in open access publishing–and is listed among the top 10 journals in herbal remedies. Each year research scientists have noticed a rise in the number of congresses being held in this field. Alternative & Integrative Medicine provides a unique platform to researchers and scientist to explore the advanced and latest research developments in the field of herbal remedies, thus bridging the gap between researchers and young scientists.

OMICS International – a pioneer in organizing international conferences which organizes scientific conferences on Clinical Sciences, Engineering & Applied Sciences, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, Omics & Management and Pharmaceutical/Chemistry and it is a perfect platform for global networking. 2nd International Conference and Exhibition on Traditional & Alternative Medicine (Traditional Medicine-2014) during August 25-26, 2014 Beijing, China. Traditional Medicine-2014 mainly aims to create a unique platform to bring experts and researchers in s Ayurvedic medicine, homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropractic, aromatherapy and anthroposophic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, traditional-medicine around the world, where they discuss the current research, achievements and advancements in the field.