Green Pharmacy - James A. Duke: I have practiced my specialty in medicinal herbs for 30 years, and I have personally witnessed the success of medicinal herbs in treating cases in which pharmaceutical drugs did not work. The reason for the lack of widespread use of medicinal herbs is that pharmaceutical companies cannot monopolize them or obtain concessions for their production. These companies earn money by extracting the active ingredient from herbs, then processing it a little to become chemically distinct, and then registering patents, concessions, and production for it, giving it a commercial name, and selling it to citizens at prices much higher than the price of its original herbal source.