Methods in ethnopharmacology.

A variety of pharmacological models are utilized in the evaluation of ethnomedicine. Most investigations are focused on developing new leads for therapeutic agents. However, there should be more efforts focused on the development of ethnomedicines because of their accessibility and acceptability in areas where modern medicine is not readily available. Testing methods to identify the active agents must be carefully selected utilizing information from ethnoanthropology, ethnobotany, phytochemistry, toxicology and pharmacology. New pharmacological models focused on cellular and molecular mechanisms can be used for ethnomedical evaluations but with great caution since they are based on known mechanisms of actions and limited by knowledge of the disease state.