The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates all the prescription drugs available in the United States, as is well known. It is also well known that the US law has allowed, since 1994, the availability of a number of over-the-counter herbal remedies under the "dietary supplements" category, over which the FDA has no regulatory control.

The chief implications of this policy decision are: (a) there is no need to examine and verify the claims of the people who market a particular product about its composition, the purity, the quality and the quantity of the ingredients used; in simple words, this means that any type of quality control is unnecessary; and, (b) it is also unnecessary to carry out any scientific investigations into the possibility or otherwise of any adverse reactions to herbal products when used either alone or in combination with other drugs. Obviously, the FDA does not wish to shoulder any responsibility in establishing any scientific credibility of the herbal remedies allowed only as dietary supplements, but not as medicines to heal ailments.

Quite a few of American consumers shop for and use herbal remedies, which are prominently displayed on the shelves in the aisles meant for "dietary supplements", blindly believing the tall claims on the labels. Sometimes the herbal remedies may not have any curative properties; instead, they may contain uncertain harmful ingredients with many side effects, in the guise of natural products. If you look a little more carefully at the different brands of the same product, you may notice considerable discrepancy in matters pertaining to the recommended dosage or to the particular part or parts of the herb that are the source of the extract marketed in the product. The possible reason for such a discrepancy can be the lack of any FDA regulation or control applicable to such cases.

What lends credibility to herbal remedies is scientific research, the validated results of which form the ground for the common people to accept them. Due to this, producers of herbal remedies as well as those that have a stake in their marketing, in their own interest, sponsor quite a number of researches. Usually, they tend to highlight only those aspects of the results that are helpful to their commercial interests, while underplaying the ones that are not. Moreover, the results of different scientific studies are not always consistent, because of which the reliability factor suffers.

A very special characteristic of herbal remedies of Chinese origin is their Chi (or Qi) effect. Practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) study the herbs on the basis of the impact of the Chi effect of herbs on the various parts of the human body and use them accordingly. Herbs are used in a way that they correct the energy imbalance in the body (the imbalance being the cause for an ailment), and thereby bring about the intended cure for the diagnosed ailment. It is rather difficult to institute scientific studies in order to statistically evaluate the intangibles of the Qi factor. That is why the credibility of TCM depends more on history and less on science.

There are too many herbal remedies and too few authentic scientific studies on every one of them to assure the people about the dependability of their curative properties in varying circumstances. It is well beyond the FDA to exercise any reasonable control over them and, therefore, most herbal remedies are made available only as "dietary supplements".