© 2001 by CRC Press LLC. The annual sale of botanical products has grown to be a multimillion dollar business. Today we are witnessing a great deal of interest in the use of herbal remedies. Some consumers have become dissatisfied with conventional medicine. They perceive it as impersonal and expensive, and conventional drug therapy often has undesirable side effects. For many Americans, the medicinal use of plant extracts seems to be a more natural, less expensive way, and involving therapies that are more gentle and largely without side effects.