title: Historical perspective of traditional indigenous medical practices: the current renaissance and conservation of herbal resources.
abstract: In recent years, increasing numbers of people have been choosing herbal medicines or products to improve their health conditions, either alone or in combination with others. Herbs are staging a comeback and herbal "renaissance" occurs all over the world. According to the World Health Organization, 75% of the world's populations are using herbs for basic healthcare needs. Since the dawn of mankind, in fact, the use of herbs/plants has offered an effective medicine for the treatment of illnesses. Moreover, many conventional/pharmaceutical drugs are derived directly from both nature and traditional remedies distributed around the world. Up to now, the practice of herbal medicine entails the use of more than 53,000 species, and a number of these are facing the threat of extinction due to overexploitation. This paper aims to provide a review of the history and status quo of Chinese, Indian, and Arabic herbal medicines in terms of their significant contribution to the health promotion in present-day over-populated and aging societies. Attention will be focused on the depletion of plant resources on earth in meeting the increasing demand for herbs.
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100102, China.
authors.forename: Si-Yuan
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Research Unit for Complementary and Integrative Laser Medicine, Research Unit of Biomedical Engineering in Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine and TCM Research Center Graz, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 29, 8036 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6287-0130
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Litscher
authors.affiliation: School of Basic Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100102, China.
authors.forename: Si-Hua
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612, USA.
authors.forename: Shu-Feng
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Zhi-Ling
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: American Academy of Natural Medicine, Costa Mesa, CA 92627, USA.
authors.forename: Hou-Qi
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100102, China.
authors.forename: Shuo-Feng
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100102, China.
authors.forename: Min-Ke
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100102, China.
authors.forename: Jian-Ning
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Division of Life Science, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Kam-Ming
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Ko