Medicinal Foods: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

SUMMARY

Knowledge of medicinal herbs and food products and the use of plants for healing date back to many ancient civilizations. Today the medicinal use of plants and foods, which is based, in part, from the knowledge of trial and error use over thousands of years in various cultures, has become incorporated into virtually all human societies. In fact, some foods and herbs have shown contemporary medicinal promise and value for their potential health promoting and protective effects. In this paper we review the literature on the medicinal value of green tea, soybean, garlic, ginger root, and Gingko biloba, and provide an overview of ginseng, echinacea, and St. John's wort.

KEYWORDS:

• Medicinal foods
• nutritional supplements
• herbs
• cross-cultural