**6. Health benefits of herbal medicines**

Correspondingly to conventional medicines, the indications of folk HMs are diverse, being employed for the treatment of a wide range of diseases [26]. The indications spread from simple health conditions such as cold, pain, surface wounds to serious conditions such as psychosis, diabetes, malaria, sickle cell disease, tuberculosis, cancer, hypertension, infertility, and so on. In certain communities, HM is a major component of the primary healthcare. Indeed, up to 80% of the rural population in Africa use herbal-based traditional medicines for most of their healthcare. In Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Zambia, the first line of treatment for 60% of children with high fever resulting from malaria and other diseases is HM, which are often administered at home. Rural South Africa also has a strong culture of traditional medicine that is based on HM. In China and India, HM accounts for about 50% of the total health product consumption. With the increasing attention to HM all over the world, the list of medicinal herbs and products is increasing so also is the consumption rate even in societies where conventional healthcare is available and easy to access. Also, in the USA, about 40% of the adult population has used herbal medicine [27]. The sales output of HM in Canada [28], Australia [6] and Europe especially in Germany and France is rapidly increasing [29].
