Usage in Traditional Medicine

Work for this stage comes under the responsibilities of the pharmacognosist or ethnopharmacologist who gathers informations from the indigenous peoples of the region and from the healers. Another important source of information is the traditional system of medicine prevalent in the country for example Ayurvedic, Chinese, Unani and African medicines.

Here one must remember that the indications for the administration of traditional medicines are based on the patient's symptoms and not on the underlying disease, which is usually unknown. Furthermore, the concept of diagnosis is usually absent. The significance of these observations may be expitated by taking the example of the leaves of Digitalis purpurea which were used for the treatemnt of dropsy, that is for a set of symptoms and not for a particular disease or for the treatment of cardiac disorders which cause oedema. Similarly, Cinchona bark was used for the treatment of fever but not against plasmodium, the malaria parasite.
Another source of difficulty lies in the fact that traditional drugs are often combination of unstandardized extracts of five or six plants.
One must also gather informations regarding the form employed i.e. infusion, decoction, or suspension of powdered drug, the route of administration, the frequency of dosing and any practices associated with administration