People, plants and health: a conceptual framework for assessing changes in medicinal plant consumption.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A large number of people in both developing and developed countries rely on medicinal plant products to maintain their health or treat illnesses. Available evidence suggests that medicinal plant consumption will remain stable or increase in the short to medium term. Knowledge on what factors determine medicinal plant consumption is, however, scattered across many disciplines, impeding, for example, systematic consideration of plant-based traditional medicine in national health care systems. The aim of the paper is to develop a conceptual framework for understanding medicinal plant consumption dynamics. Consumption is employed in the economic sense: use of medicinal plants by consumers or in the production of other goods.

Methods

PubMed and Web of Knowledge (former

SUBMITTER: Smith-Hall C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3549945 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature