The observation, identification, description and experimental investigation of the ingredients and the effects of indigenous drugs is a truly interdisciplinary field of research. The term ethnopharmacology has been used to describe this field. Ethnopharmacological research is based on botany, pharmacology, toxicology and chemistry, but other disciplines make vital contributions, not least anthropology. Ethnopharmacology can thus be defined as: “the interdisciplinary scientific exploration of biologically active agents traditionally employed or observed by man.” The study of traditional drugs is not meant to advocate a return to the use of these remedies in their aboriginal form, nor to exploit traditional medicine. The objectives of ethnopharmacology are to rescue and document an important cultural heritage before it is lost, and to investigate and evaluate the agents employed. (Alger, 1976; Bruhn and Holmstedt, 1981; Holmstedt and Bruhn, 1983; de Smet and Rivier, 1989; Philipson and Anderson, 1989).