Is there any evidence that herbal medicines really work?
For almost all herbs, there is a very long history of use (sometimes going back thousands of years). History of use is the most thorough form of evidence for safety and efficacy, because real-world experience often brings things to light that controlled studies do not (think of all the drugs that have been approved for sale, then taken off the market in recent years). Additionally, many of the more commonly used herbs have been subjects of several clinical trials. So, for many herbal medicines, there is more reliable scientific evidence for their safety and effectiveness, than there is for comparable conventional drugs.
