This question is important, with more and more Americans increasing their use of herbs and as standardized separate herbal constituents are becoming popular as herbal manufacturers enter drug-oriented healthcare markets. As herb companies begin to educate the public about the health benefits of herbs, a way must be found to work with regulations that were never intended to deal with the complexities or broad-based effects of herbal healing.
Standardization attempts to isolate active constituents for a very limited function.
Standardization procedures also allow the use of substandard materials. No one constituent, no matter how worthwhile, can do its healing job without the right stuff from the rest of the herb. For example, ginseng has become a popular ingredient in many herbal products. Yet, thousands of years of worldwide, well documented experience shows ginseng has dozens of other actions that control disease and promote wellness - functions entirely missed by this test. As naturally concentrated foods, herbs have the unique ability to address a multiplicity of problems simultaneously.