Birth of specialities and super specialities in modern medicine has compounded the problems of the practice of scientific and rational medicine. Instead of converging on the principle of providing holistic health care, medical specialisations have become so much compartmentalised that they are found to affect the very delivery of medical care in a coherent manner. As allopathic medicine has become prohibitively costly, alternative systems of medicine are thought of. Now there is a trend to fall back upon traditional systems of medicine (TSM).
While the benefits of TSM may not be questioned, it is also essential that those medicines are subject to scrutiny by experts and scientists. The belief that natural products are devoid of adverse effects is unfounded. Any herb or for that matter any natural product used either in part or wholly is bound to have some unnecessary chemicals and…
