— Herbal remedies have been used by healers around the world for centuries to prevent and treat disease. But it's in China that the practice has been most extensively used and documented.
Dr. Arthur Grollman, a professor of pharmacological science and medicine at Stony Brook University in New York, agrees with this assessment."It will confer legitimacy on unproven therapies and add considerably to the costs of health care," he said. WHO said the"purpose of the ICD is to capture information on all health conditions and their treatment -- the reason for including traditional medicine conditions and practices is that it is used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide."
However, he added the inclusion of traditional medicine was"not an endorsement of the scientific validity of any Traditional Medicine practice or the efficacy of any Traditional Medicine intervention."Chinese leaders have been lobbying for the move.
One notable drug that has emerged from Chinese medicine is the malaria treatment artemisinin, for which Chinese scientist Tu Youyou won a"It would be very dangerous to use it in the herbal way. It's good because it's been purified and you can control the dose," he said.