For thousands of years, many cultures have used plant and fungal materials not only for food, but also in more specialized cases as medicine, such as for the treatment of anxiety.
Or cuisine and medicine were combined.
Not surprisingly then, spices and herbs were major commodities of trade, even over large distances.
The modern US medical establishment only recently in historical terms has tended to dismiss the use of herbs as ineffective when compared or supposedly compared with chemically standardized and targeted pharmaceutical drugs.
For anxiety, the drug Valium is prescribed rather than the herb Valerian despite the latter's effectiveness.
European professional practice tends to integrate both drugs and herbs.
High profit from drugs in the US tends to fund research for more high-profit drugs rather than herbal remedies which cannot be patented for exclusive manufacture or distribution.
And allopathic doctors are wooed with training and profit for the use of patented drugs.
Recent national socialized medicine laws in the US have proceeded in a manner particularly favorable to brand name drug companies.
Nevertheless, sales of herbs in the US have shown something of a come back, suggesting with history that herbs will continue to have a significant role to play in human health.
On the street, anecdotal evidence of salutary effects is enough to encourage trial of herbs.
If you feel generally anxious or have just experienced a panic attack, you might make an appointment to see a doctor, but first you might also head over to a health food store and ask for herbal anti-anxiety remedies.
Patient use may not always be on the basis of the best information or practice, but pain and felt need motivates people to trial and error proceedings, hopefully culminating in some successes.
Profit may also motivate peddlers of herbs to exaggerate their helpful effects.
The herb Kava Kava probably is not going to be as fast or powerful at treating the symptoms of a panic attack as the drug Alprazolam.
On the whole, herbs and herb-based products are typically milder and more gentle in their effects on the human body than pharmaceutical drugs.
Kava Kava has fewer and lesser side effects than Alprazolam.
Herbs are also much more chemically complex, with less targeted and more multifaceted effects on the human body.
Herbal products are, after all, made with typically minimal processing from living plants.
Scientific research into the effects of herbs on human health continues apace, with increases in standardization of potencies and regulation probable.
This may raise the price of herbs, and also suggest that the patterns of effects on the human body can become more regular and measurable.
Varying potencies logically would produce more varied effects on human health than standardized potencies, although as even with drugs, human bodies produce different results when the same medicinal substance is used.
With limited frequency, unfavorable side effects certainly have been observed for herbs as well as drugs, an example of which is allergic reaction.
Camomile tea is taken to calm nerves, but should be avoided by people with an allergic reaction to rag weed.
And there are herbs and herb products that should only be used in rare cases or in limited doses or brief time frames or with close professional supervision.
Others are relatively ineffective, at least as far as a patient's symptoms go.
Valerian seems to be ineffective for insomnia.
Negative side effects seem to be more frequent when the patient uses both herbs and drugs together to treat the same ostensible condition.
The anti-anxiety herb Hops should generally be avoided when taking drugs to treat depression.
Patient consultation with a professional seems the more warranted in such cases, although regrettably a thorough integration of allopathic and naturopathic practice and training is relatively rare among medical professionals in the US.
Fortunately for the naturopathic side, negative side effects to herbs in general terms tend to be milder than to drugs.
The complexity of our living bodies suggest that allopathic internal medicine, for all its scientifically verifiable successes, has a long way to go in understanding and treating human ailments.
The complex living structure of herbs implies that their use will continue for as long as patients feel they make a positive difference.
Herbal anti-anxiety remedies ultimately stand or fall in the market on that basis.