Traditional herbal and non-herbal medicines have a tremendous potential to contribute to public health. They represent a tradition stretching back over centuries of safe and reliable self-help, and are still the primary form of medication for 80% of the world’s population. In modern times, and in western societies such as ours, they are the medicines of choice for a significant and growing body of alert and intelligent consumers in the treatment of non-critical ailments. Their revival is to nurtured and encouraged, and we feel that it was in this spirit that the Minister requested the IMB to develop a system that would be able to legalise them, without undue restrictions being placed on them.

Certainly, traditional medicines need a regulatory framework that is specifically designed for them and which formally recognises the essence and ethics of traditional medicine. It is not sufficient just to “shoehorn” them into the existing pharmaceutical model of medicines legislation and hope for the best. At the very least they deserve a proper unambiguous definition, and delineation from other health products such as food supplements.