Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 1998; 3: 190
Phytomedicines are generally categorised as complementary medicine. This position is analysed.
A typical textbook of phytotherapy is analysed with respect to the scientific grounds (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology) and compared with a modern textbook of pharmacology.
Thinking in phytotherapy presents no different views regarding site, where phytomedicines act (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry), compared to mainstream medicine. Likewise, the response is regarded as mediated by pharmacological triggers in phytotherapy and in conventional medicine (although these may be unknown for many of the plant medicines). The difference lies on the site of the triggers, not in their materialistic nature as such, but in the number and activities of compounds.
Phytotherapy is completely based on materialistic and scientific grounds. The only peculiarity is the complexity of its triggers, which include a broad spectrum of chemical structures with possible pharmacological activities. This difference has implications on pharmacological, but not on clinical research methodology, as efficacy is defined by influence of a treatment on a disease. In fact, several herbal preparations (e.g. Gingko, Hypericum, Vitex, or the combination Sinupret®) were clinically evaluated according to classical clinical research principles.
The question, to which extent phytomedicine is complementary, has to be answered as follows: no need of complementary clinical research strategies except the need of strict pharmacognostic definition of the medicine. In pharmacological research, complexity may pose problems, which can be resolved with sophisticated scientific methods.
