> If there really were an untapped trove of "cures" in the alternative
> armamentarium, wouldn't the drug industry be all over them, trying to
> standardize, patent, and overcharge?
Actually, a lot of drugs have been derived from "folk medicine"; the outstanding example is salicylic acid (aspirin), which was derived, of course, from willow bark (hence the name of the acid), which was used from time immemorial to relieve pain.
"Herbs" are turned into "conventional medicine" drugs quite often, by extracting what appears to be the active compound (like salicylic acid) and turning it into a form which can be administered in precise doses.
From the "conventional medicine" standpoint, the thing that is wrong with "herbs" which are taken directly from natural sources is that they aren't administratable in said precise doses, and are composed of a huge number of compounds of all sorts (they aren't "pure"). OTOH, what is wrong with conventional drugs from the herbalists' point of view is precisely that one or a few compounds are isolated, which the herbalists claim destroys their real efficacy. OTO-OH, as aspirin shows, this isolation quite often works.
And as has already been pointed out, full trials are pretty expensive, and the "alternative medicine" community doesn't have the moolah to pay for lots of them. Drug companies have plenty of moolah -- they develop and test drugs which they think will make them plenty of more moolah, and derive these drugs by scouring nature or by synthesis, whichever their technies think is the best approach, I suppose.
Another thing to note is the extent to which good scientific procedure is distorted by capitalism in the development of drugs: there is a lengthy, rigorous trial process drugs are supposed to go through, and some (I'm not sure what percentage) are in fact put through it, but others, as is well known, are not, presumably to up the profits of the company in question, leading to embarassingly high adverse event rates after they are put on the market. In a capitalist society, there is always a tug-of-war between science and profit.
(Apologies for going over the daily message quota.)
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit, 'Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet; Nor ever ever shall, until that I die, For the longer I live the more fool am I. -- Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy (1684)