In many parts of the world, where medicines are not readily available or affordable, the public continue to rely on medicines used traditionally in their cultures. At the same time, affluent consumers in the industrialized world are spending their own money on healthcare approaches that fall outside what has been considered mainstream medicine. A growing body of national and international studies highlight the reality that there is exponential growth of global interest in and use of traditional (. indigenous), complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM). The scale of this is so sizeable that it constitutes a public health phenomenon in itself
