Chef Mark Mattern, MBA, CEC

Just think, it wasn't too long ago when herbs were simply a substance added to food to improve its flavor. Today about one-third of all Americans use herbal supplements to improve their health. In fact, the sales of herbal preparations nearly tripled between 1994 and 1998 increasing from 1.6 billion dollars to 4 billion dollars in sales. For quite some time herbs were considered an obsolete form of medicine and pushed aside in favor of chemically produced drugs. Most people don't realize that half of the drugs used today are artificial recreations of natural plant derived chemicals. For example, Aspirin is nothing more than the chemical imitation of salicin, a substance that comes from the bark of the white willow tree. So why are herbs suddenly becoming so popular? It is because people are starting to learn that pharmaceutical drugs are not the wonders that they have been touted as. Many drugs are now becoming useless thanks to overuse and the constant adaptation of pathogens