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The desire to take medicine is one feature which distinguishes man, the animal, from his fellow creatures.
William Osler1
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the regulatory body charged with assessing the basic and clinical science underlying the introduction of new drugs into clinical practice and evaluating the efficacy and safety of new pharmaceutical agents, usually on the basis of data from phase 3 randomized trials. Almost always, the FDA initially limits the use of drugs it approves by requiring them to be prescribed by a physician.
In contrast, herbs and other botanical products, which are defined as
Source Information
From the Departments of Medicine (R.S.D.) and Surgery (R.A.M.), Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Brunswick.
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