Chinese Herbal Formulas are the most sophisticated, well researched and oldest herbal tradition still in use today. Western pharmacology has its roots in herbs and many of the medications we still use today have been derived from herbs. For example: aspirin is derived from the bark of willow trees and morphine from poppy seeds. Through research into the medicinal properties of these substances, scientists were able to determine what molecular structure within these plants cause the desired effect in our bodies. They then synthesized and concentrated just that molecular structure; and this is why western medicines are so fast and so effective… but it is also why there are so many side effects. The body is not accustomed to processing such a concentration of just one part of a plant or substance. Chinese herbal formulas carry all the phytonutrients that each herb was born with so the body knows what to do with it; the formulas have anywhere from 3 to 20 different herbs combined in order to treat the whole body.