Foreword

Ten years ago, when I first told a friend that I was writing a book on herbs, he looked startled and said, "Why, Earl, I had no idea that you could cook!"

Today, his comment seems laughable but, back then, most people still thought that herbs were only something you added to tomato sauce or sprinkled on a salad.

What a difference a decade makes!

According to a recent survey, one-third of all Americans today use herbal supplements and related products. Once relegated to a small shelf in the back of the store, herbs now account for about 25 percent of all sales in natural food stores. There are now row upon row of herbal supplements not just where you'd expect to find them - in natural food stores - but also in conventional pharmacies, discount stores, supermarkets, and even in doctors' offices. Aspirin and acetaminophen now stand side by side with herbs such as echinacea, goldenseal, kava, valerian, ginseng, and St. John's wort. If, as the saying goes, money talks, Americans are loudly voicing their support for herbal products. In 1994, Americans spent 1.6 billion dollars on herbal preparations; by 1998, that number had nearly tripled, to $4 billion in retail sales. I predict that the market will continue to grow exponentially.

Sales of herbal products have skyrocketed since Congress passed the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), which radically changed the way supplements can be sold and marketed in the United States. The law lifted decades of regulatory barriers that had made it difficult, if not impossible, to bring new supplements to market. The law also made it eas