Who’s In Charge Around Here? Last edited: 09 04 2011 07:50

How are standards applied in herbal medicine?

There are 2 main Professional Bodies who oversee the practice of Western Herbal Medicine in the UK, theNational Institute of Medical Herbalists and the College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy. There are a few others as well, who have varying levels of admittance criteria, and who may represent differing forms of the practice of herbal medicine.

For at least the past 10 years there have been numerous attempts to regulate herbalists in the UK. Following a House of Lords committee report, a council was formed under the chairmanship of the late Professor Micheal Pittillo, to look into and recommend an effective way of regulating herbal medicine and acupuncture. The end product was a pretty impressive blueprint for regulating the practice and ensuring that very high standards were maintained by practising professionals.It was assumed that the recommendations from this report would be implemented under the auspices of the Health Professions Council, however, this plan seems to have been scuppered for the time being thanks to the efforts of a small but vociferous group of zealous bigots, who seem to want to stop the practice of herbal medicine altogether. These include Professor Edzard Ernst of the University of Exeter, and Professor David Colquhoun of UCL.

So, for the time being, if you are choosing a herbalist and want to know who has been sufficiently trained in order to practice effectively and safely, you would probably be best advised to select one who belongs to either of the 2 professional bodies mentioned above.