Medicinal herbs are plants used for their healing purposes. The plants can be used as a whole or it can be used for specific parts. Medicinal plants have often been used for traditional medicinal purposes and religious purposes. Drugs are purified and extracted from medicinal herbs. The plants often serve as the basis and synthesizing material for pharmaceutical drugs.

             Medicinal plants used as a whole contain chemicals that act simultaneously to create desired effects. This may be the outcome of trial and error of generations preceding. Superstitions and religious beliefs are also part of the discovery of herbal medicines. Religious leaders and sages believed that the bitter tasting herbs would remove impurities from the body. This belief however outrageous it may seem has been proved because most drugs derived form plants are from bitter tasting plants. Religious beliefs and experimentation has a great association to the discovery of herbal medicines.

         Medicinal plants are discovered in many ways. One of the first approach to the discovery is by using plants and assaying them. Plants however are not always selected in this manner. Sometimes they are selected because of the phylogeny and the relation of the plant to other herbal medicines. Plants are also used for testing according to religious beliefs and the records of the people who have used the plant. The pant then undergoes a series of testing s and laboratory technique. One of the first is the bioassay of the plant which tests the effects of the plant on certain chemicals on the living systems. If the plant demonstrates activity on the living system the chemical is then extracted and prepared for further testing. The chemical is then tested and identified for synthesizing. 

          Today in the twenty first century the uses of medicinal herbs are not uncommon but there is modern prejudice due to many factor. The discovery and the techniques used to develop with the technology involved is the major reason.. Also by distilling , purifying and extracting the plant it helps to regulate the dosage of the medicine so that an individual will not overdose and help to decrease long term effects. The government over the years has spent billions of dollars to the researching of drugs however they have spent an inproportional amounts on plants.

PARSLEY

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