Herbs rich in antioxdiant phytochemicals are used to treat and prevent diseases in many cultures

What are Medicinal Herbs?

Herb is broadly any plant or plant part used for culinary and medicinal purposes.

Here are other examples of “herb” definitions from dictionaries:

1. "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking".

2. “A plant whose stem does not produce woody, persistent tissue and generally dies back at the end of each growing season.”

For the medicinal purpose, herbs are plants or their parts containing phytochemicals that have effects on the body.

Herbs containing antioxidants as Drugs or Medicines

In human history of about 7000 year civilization, herbs have been widely used as drugs or medicines in prevention and treatment of various diseases. Especially in the eastern cultures of India and China, herbs have been proved to effective and useful for the better health of human kind. It is estimated about 5000 herbs are documented in Chinese herbal medicine, while about 400 of them are routine ingredients for doctors of Chinese herbal medicine to prescribe in hospitals for patients of various illnesses. Herbal medicine has been a systematic subject of scientific and academic studies in various Chinese research institutes and universities.

Greek is one of the western civilizations and a model country in medicinal use of herbs, as documented in the Hippocratic elemental healing system. Its philosophical basis is a quaternary elemental healing metaphor.

In the modern science, herbs have been found to contain rich antioxidants of a variety of biological activities. There have been rich scientific data in the literature for antioxidant phytochemicals isolated from herbs to have health benefits.

Controversial about antioxidants in general

There are pros and cons on the beneficial effects of antioxidants. It is not surprising if you see horrible reports from time to time about antioxidant phytochemicals. However, the facts accumulated through thousand years of human history are undeniable. Antioxidant phytochemicals taken as dietary supplement are good for the health of human beings, if selected wisely and taken appropriately.

American laws do not recognize herbs as drugs/medicines

In US, a drug is defined by Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which does not recognize herbs as drug/medicine for disease treatment and prevention. Many other countries such as Australia do recognize the roles of herbs for disease treatment and prevention.

In US, it is a federal crime to sell herbs and antioxidant phytochemicals as drugs, or to claim for a commercial product of herbs and antioxidant to have drug effects in treatment and prevention of any diseases.

In US, FrenchGlory isotonic OPC products are nutritional and dietary supplement, not intended to treat and prevent any diseases. They may not be therapeutic goods in US.

But they may be a therapeutic goods in other countries such as in Austalia, as soon as there are not claims of serious disease treatment and prevention.