[Herbal medicine--taking a position. Effectiveness and usefulness of herbal preparations]

During the discussion on the elimination of certain groups of drugs and disorders from the list of obligatory services to be remunerated by state health insurances, vague, undefined terms such as "controversial" are being applied to phytopharmaceuticals and their fields of application. This may be traced back to an ignorance and global rejection of available scientific documentation. The rational background of modern phytopharmaceuticals are discussed.