**9. Future prospects of herbal medicine**

In the past decade, about 121 pharmaceutical products have been formulated based on herbal medicine knowledge [42]. According to literature at least 25% of modern medicines are derived from plants, such as aspirin, picrotoxin and numerous others are synthetic analogues built on prototype compounds isolated from plants [48]. Because of the increase in the acceptance of plant derived drugs, the use of plants in medicine as a source of therapeutic agents will expand rapidly in the future [42]. This has extremely increased international trade of herbal medicine, attracting a number of pharmaceutical companies, including the multinationals [11]. The interest of WHO by documenting the use of medicinal plants used by ethnic groups, has increased scientific validation of the use of these plants. This will make people better informed concerning the effectiveness and safety of the treatment [21]. The regulation of herbs has assisted in improving herbal products, however additional changes need to be applied to advance and indorse high quality research [10].
