Evidence-based phytotherapy: what, why and how?

Abstract

With the ever-increasing popularity and extensive usage of phytotherapy all over the globe, it has now become absolutely necessary to ensure its efficacy, toxicity and adverse effects on the basis of suitable scientific evidence, and to put proper measures in place to regulate practice of phytotherapy as well as phytotherapeutic products. Before getting into the nitty-gritty of evidence-based phytotherapy, let us quickly remind ourselves of the definition of phytotherapy. Simply, phytotherapy, the term first introduced by the French physician Henri Leclerc in 1993, is the plant-based therapy or medical practice that is offered to treat and/or prevent various human diseases.