It wasn’t until the discovery of penicillin that the general public began to drop traditional plant medicine in favor of modern pharmaceuticals, feeling plant medicine worked, but more slowly. Besides, taking a pill was more convenient than preparing teas with sometimes unpleasant tastes or poultices of ointments from plants. There was also a psychological element in play, where pills were almost like magic and much better suited to modern life.

There was a gradual decline in interest in the old ways and by the 1950’s, you were considered somewhat of a “wacko” if you were still using these plants as herbal medicine. Poor Grandma’s home herbal medicine remedies fell into disrepute, with a note of disdain to boot.

As pharmaceutical companies began producing more and more pills,herbal medicine was all but forgotten. The irony of this is that the pharmaceutical companies were relying chiefly on plants as the active ingredients in their magic pills. However, in order to make a profit, the resulting pill product had to be patentable, and a plant cannot be patented, by law. So the pharmaceutical companies sought to extract only the active constituents thought responsible for the healing effect, combining them with other single extractions,thus making them patentable and profitable.