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I think that my OLD FASHIONED 325 mg. per tablet Bayer aspirin originally came from willow bark way back when but I may be wrong. CRS now!Nearly all modern medicines started out as some tribe's herbal medicine. Ethnobotany is an entire field of study in which the researchers go live with various indigenous people and learn about their medicines and other plant uses. They bring the info back home and the herbal form is trialled under controlled conditions. If it works next step is to isolate the active ingredients if possible. Tweak one or more to enhance power or stability or safety. Patent tweaked version. Make the medicine derived from their tribal knowledge available to the tribe only for high prices they can't afford. We call it ethno botany and drug develooment. They call it theft of their cultural wisdom.
Just because nearly all modern medicines started as herbal medicines doesn't mean that all herbal medicine is effective or safe however.
I used to have several books regarding these subject matters.
You are correct in your post especially about some being effective or safe.
Plus some people MIX and overdo - overdose their NATURAL and Rx meds and it can be lethal or cause severe damage to their physical/mental welfare. Organ damage too.
One natural med did this to my older sister and she had some real issues. She was TOLD not to take squat, anything EXTRA, due to her transplant and other issues but she did it anyway. It turns out that the THING that she took was a hormone based thing and not a herb/vitamin.
Cate