MANILA, Philippines - Comfrey, kargasok tea, noni juice, mahogany seeds. Tell me which ones you remember and I can tell what your age range is. These were the natural medicine fads that came, conquered, and then faded away, usually after the government came out with a study warning about the dangers of using them, or an official notice that these so-called cures have no proven medicinal effect.

But these were not short-lived fads, with some of them lingering on for years after they declined in popularity. I still see some of these former celebrity plants being sold by vendors, complete with outrageous claims. Not only that, they?ve been joined by dozens of other products that Filipinos call, generically, ?herbal? (er-bal), even if many of them are not derived from plants.

Officially, the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) considers these products ?food supplements? rather than drugs (or medicines). If they do go through BFAD review, they are not evaluated for effectiveness. Neither are the safety evaluations too stringent. The only requirement BFAD has is that ?no therapeutic claims? are made by distributors, but this rule is observed more in the breach. Often enough, the products are sold without any medicinal claims; sometimes they?ll even have a sticker saying ?No Therapeutic Claims,? but promotional materials will often name all kinds of sicknesses for which the supplement is supposedly effective. Sometimes, too, the promotional literature will contain all kinds of testimonies, and so-called scientific explanations for the products? ?effectiveness.? I?ll never forget one explanation on why shark cartilage (now there?s an example of a non-herbal ?herbal? cure) prevents cancer: sharks don?t get cancer. Sure.

Many people are unaware that an ?Approved by BFAD? label doesn?t mean the product is medicinal. Being sold in a drugstore doesn?t make the product a medication either, as even chocolate bars, chewing gum and groceries are sold in pharmacies these days.

Be extra careful as well about products sold in Chinese drugstores. Get ready for a shock: while ?western? drugstores like Mercury are subject to inspections and strict BFAD rules, the Chinese drugstores are exempt. The reason? They?re considered cultural institutions, and the products they sell are presumably cultural products exempt from BFAD scrutiny.

Yet there is a large and growing market for these products. While ?western? medicines are identified mainly as products for the sick, food supplements or ?natural? medicines are peddled with all kinds of claims that appeal to the healthy and not so healthy, as well as those who are suffering from ailments, usually chronic ones.

Food supplements have a particular appeal because of fears that people have of western medicine, often seen as having side effects. Unfortunately, people tend to presume that ?natural? means totally safe, and this just isn?t the case.

There?s also something very disturbing about the more popular faddish food supplements: they?re imported. We tend to go for these because of our colonial mentality, and are all too willing to pay through our nose for these products. A few years back, I witnessed rural middle-income families spending half of their monthly income to buy Herbalife, which was a US-based chain whose products are sold house to house much like Tupperware. In more recent times, people would spend almost a thousand pesos for a bottle of Garcinia juice. You know what Garcinia is? Mangosteen.

We neglect our own resources and folk knowledge in favor of imported, unproven fads. I know it?s a human inclination: stuff from remote places, with strange names like Kargasok, seem so much more effective than plain old luya (ginger) or damong maria. It hasn?t helped that our scientists have moved so slowly on medicinal plants. The Department of Health only approves of 10 local plants. Thirty years ago, freshly graduated from college, I worked as a researcher on medicinal plants. In one year of moving around the country, I was able to list more than a thousand plants being used by local herbalists, and over 70 which were listed in other countries? official lists of approved medicines.

These days it almost seems like we have a schizophrenic government when it comes to medicinal plants (okay, okay, so it?s schizo about many other aspects of governance as well). The Department of Health tends to be very cautious and reluctant to endorse medicinal plants, even as it gives a BFAD seal of approval, without explaining that it does so only by classifying natural products as ?food."

The Department of Education actually likes medicinal plants, but mainly as gardening projects for public schools. Almost nothing is being done to educate our children about the scientific basis for medicinal plants, or traditional medicine in general.

These days, the Department of Tourism has jumped into the act, promoting ?indigenous medicine? as an exotic come-on for tourists: come get our traditional massage, come use our medicinal plants for aromatherapy.

Meanwhile, we neglect research on medicinal plants while a whole underground economy flourishes, selling American food supplements. Some of these products can be effective, but again, too little is being done to educate the public on what works and what doesn?t. Even more importantly, we shouldn?t forget that the best preventive and curative health measures still aren?t western pills, or all these ?herbals?: it?s still good nutrition, lots of exercise and a healthy outlook on life.