For thousands of years, humans have used products from the natural world around them for food, clothing and shelter. The use of herbs, plants, and other natural products has been developed for many different reasons, one of the most important being for medicinal purposes. Throughout the world many cultures have developed elaborate rituals and rich traditions of treating ailments with natural products and some of these have survived into the modern era. In the contemporary western world, a renewed appreciation for the use of natural products in healing has grown over recent decades. As the new millennium approaches, we are witnessing a continuing explosion of interest in what have come to be termed "alternative therapies.

Herbal medicine is an ancient system of medicine that utilizes seeds, berries, roots, leaves, bark, or flowers of plants. Herbal medicine is sometimes referred to as phytomedicine, botanical medicine or herbalism.