Personal approach to herbs from the point of clients and herbalists

Introduction: There is an increasing interest in herbal medicine throughout the world in recent years. The return began with the current slogan "the return to natural products". The use of herbal products has become a form of therapy. With increasing demand, herbalist and receivers, as customers in the last chain of today's economy, become quite a large import of medicinal plants. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of socio-demographic characteristics of the use of herbal medicinal products, for what purpose they choose, which plants; to identify their feedback on this issue; the factors influencing the use of these products and to draw attention to this issue. We also aim to learn the opinions of herbalists operated in central Aydin on the medicinal plants, their socio-demographic status, and to reveal their thoughts about the future of their profession. Materials and Method: This study was designed as a cross-sectional, descriptive voluntary-based survey. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Medicine Interventional Non-Clinical Research. The population of Aydin province over 18 (180,506 people) is defined as the universe of our study. The sample size was determined as 842 based on 95% confidence intervals with the 50% expected prevalence in the Epi Info statistical program STATCALC (p 50%) and type 1 alpha error of 0.05. For this purpose, the number of herbalists, officially registered in the central district, was learned from Provincial Directorate of Aydin Food, Agriculture and Livestock via Governorship of Aydin. All of the 15 registered herbalists were included in the study. Those herbalists were informed about the study and then prepared data forms were filled by face to face interview method, between 1 September 2014-31 December 2014. After determining the rush hour of herbalists, the survey was conducted especially at those times. This time, clients were asked to complete the prepared questionnaire by face to face interview method. This study was not only voluntary-based, but also the consent forms were filled. The sample was 842 consecutively adult customers, over 18 years of age, who accepted to participate in the study. The data were assessed by SPSS version 18.0. A P-value (<0,05) was considered statistically significant. Results: 15 herbalists registered officially to Food, Agriculture and Livestock Directorate of Aydin were included in the study. The average age of Herbalists participated in the study was 44,6 and 4 (four) of them were female. Most of them have high school graduation and nearly half of them has been dealing with herbal products trade almost more than 10 years. Most of them declared to have been thought this job either from masters or family. The pattern which clients prefer is likely to purchase the products shown on the TV marketing. Even though majority of herbalists sees their profession to have complementary role for conventional medicine, more than half is on the agreement that physicians' knowledge about herbal product is insufficient and also biased. 842 people that purchase from the herbalists are included in the study. The average age of the purchasers was 41,6. A majority of purchasers' gender was female, belong to middle and high income group and more than half of them had university graduate. Almost all clients had health insurance. The response of more than half of the purchasers to the question "What do you first do when you get sick" was either "consult a doctor" or "apply a health care provider". Among the nonmedical methods that clients have experienced, herbal products were the most preferred. Herbal products like ginger and turmeric which are the most preffered ones by clients were also among the most expensive exported product. More than half of client declared that they prefer herbal products as health supplements. Clients with chronic illness preferred significantly self management interventions. People with bachelor degree significantly identified their health status either "very good" or "good". As it is seen, while people with complaints currently consult family physicians significantly before applying herbalists, people that prefer herbal products as a dietary supplement for both themselves and their children significantly consult specialists. Conclusion: The top selling products like ginger and turmeric were also among the most expensive imported ones. Majority of clients were predominantly female gender, belonged to middle and high income group and more than half of them either had university graduate or high school graduate and health insurance. Clients declared that they apply a health care provider at first. Family physicians should have knowledge about common used herbal products. It is considered valuable to let medical curriculum cover not only standardized theory lectures but also practical applications throughout specialization and undergraduate education for overcoming deficiencies. Key words: Herbal medicine, medicinal plants, family physician