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HERBALS AND FOOD SUPPLEMENTS

The 10 Best Philippine Medicinal Plants

Jaime Z. Galvez Tan MD, MPH

Professor, University of the Philippine College of Medicine

Food Supplement

Foodstuffs meant to supplement the normal diet and which are concentrated sources of nutrients or other substances with a nutritional or physiological function, alone or in combination, marketed in dose form.

EU Food Supplement Directive 2002/46/CE

Functional Food

A functional food is "consumed as part of a usual diet that is similar in appearance to, or may be, a conventional food, and is demonstrated to have physiological benefits and/or reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions."

National Research Council Canada

Nutraceutical

A product isolated or purified from food that is generally sold in medicinal forms not usually associated with food. A nutraceutical has been demonstrated to have a physiological benefit or provide protection against chronic disease.

National Research Council Canada

When a functional food aids in the prevention and/or treatment of disease(s) and/or disorder(s) (except anemia), it is called a nutraceutical. The proposed definition can help form distinction between functional foods, nutraceuticals, and dietary supplements.

Kalra, EK. Nutraceutical – Definition and Introduction. AAPS PharmSci 2003; 5 (3) Article 25 (http://www.pharmsci.org)

Introduction to Herbal Medicine

Plants may have been used for medicinal purposes since prehistoric times, as evidenced by eight species of plants found buried with the remains of a Neanderthal man living 60,000 years ago in the Shanidar Cave in Iraq. These same plants are still being widely used in ethnomedicine around the world today.

The number of higher plant species on earth is 250,000, and it is estimated that 35,000 to 70,000 species have, at one time or another, been used in some cultures for medicinal purposes. The World Health Organization (WHO)...