Traditional Medicine (TM)
Herbal-derived medicines that have been used for treating and preventing diseases. The first herbal book is written in China at about 2,700 B.C., Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing. Ancient Greek produced other herbal books later, Corpus Hippocraticum and De Materia Medica.
The oldest preserved case of herbal medicines was documented in Otzi the Iceman. He was carrying fruits of Piptoporus betulinus that contain agaric acid; effective against Trichuris trichiura, an intestinal parasite, found in Otzi's rectum.
There have been sporadic efforts to include traditional medicines in national drug policies since 1978 by World Health Organization (WHO). However, it was only until 1984 when China reformed its Drug Administration Law authorizing Chinese State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) to regulate both synthetic and traditional medicine that major actions were taken. In the following decade, WHO, American Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and European Medicine Evaluation Agency (EMEA) also established guidelines to evaluate traditional medicine safety, efficacy, quality, and intended use.
Currently, WHO has published "WHO monographs on selected medicinal plants" that many national monographs adopt as authoritative references. The most comprehensive publication is "Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China".