**8. The market for herbal medicine in the developed world**

Herbal medicine has gained increasing popularity in the last two decades in industrialized countries. The congress of the United States of America (USA) established the Office of Alternative Medicine in the year 1989 within the National Institute of Health (NIH). This was formed to interest scientists in the field of medicinal plants [3]. According to the 2007 NIH survey, 4 out of 10 adults (38.8%) and 1 out of 9 children (11.8%) used some form of herbal medicine [37]. In USA, presently about 25% of prescription drugs contain at least one plant derived ingredient [21], the herbal market in this country has doubled from \$4 billion since 1996 [6]. In 1989, the European Scientific Cooperative on Phytotherapy was formed with an aim to advance herbal medicine [3]. The herbal medicine market in European countries has been growing steadily from \$6 billion in 1991 to over \$20 billion currently, particularly in Germany, France and Italy [4, 6]. In Germany, herbal medicine is identified as one of the elements of naturopathy [46], approximately 600–700 plant derived medicines are accessible and prescribed by approximately 70% of German physicians [47]. In 2011, 20% of herbal drugs were sold as prescriptions and 80% over the counter in Germany [46]. In the year 2005, The National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health in the USA spent about US\$ 33 million on herbal medicine, the National Canadian Institutes disbursed approximately US\$ 89 million for research in traditional therapies in 2004. These scientific evaluations have led to an upsurge in the investment of herbal medicine [3].
