But one in three people still takes a course of antibiotics each year – with three in four of these prescriptions for antibiotics handed out by GPs and at least one in four of these prescriptions being “inappropriately prescribed”, according to the latest statistics.

There are unfortunate but understandable commercial reasons for this. “The problem is that the current business model for the pharmaceutical industry makes it very difficult to finance new antibiotics which are designed to be used as rarely as possible for as short a time as possible,” says David Partridge, research lead for the Directorate of Laboratory Medicine at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. When we started Pukka Herbs, we knew – well we hoped – that we were going to create something special; Tim and I were both utterly passionate about bringing plants and people together and we set off with the inspiring tailwind of Ayurveda behind us. We really wanted to be a part of the positive change that was at the heart of the organic health community and so we dived in, head first. And, wow, what a welcome we have received!Sambucol liquids contain preservatives to help stabilise the products and to prevent microbial growth and undesirable taste/ flavour.

With its goals of healing, it emphasises an individualised holistic approach, self-management and the practitioner-patient relationship with multi-disciplinary collaborative teams.” We have developed growing methods to increase active compounds in some species by 300%. For example, in andrographis paniculata – the renowned herbal immune activator for upper respiratory tract infections – increasing the andrographolide content from 1% to 5%; or the remarkable carminative and anti-spasmodic ‘anethole’ in sweet fennel seed essential oil from 0.9% to 85% of the total oil. Wanting to avoid falling into the category described by the 2002 World Health Organization (WHO) strategy declaration, ‘finished products to which chemically defined active substances have been added, including isolated constituents from herbal materials, are not considered to be herbal’, we have also developed special extracts that concentrate the active phytochemicals while retaining the fingerprint profile of the whole plant. Ms Kriese says the trial might be even more effective if GPs were given a basic training in traditional herbal remedies. Whether that happens remains to be seen. A 2017 report by Kew Gardens, State of the World’s Plants (Willis, 2017), showed that, of the 400,000 or so flowering plants, 28,187 have some documented medicinal use. Very worryingly, one in five plants face some threat to their future survival, some of them vital contributors to the pharmacopoeia. Licorice, echinacea, goldenseal, devil’s claw, guggul-myrrh, sandalwood and slippery elm are all threatened in their natural habitats.Kosttilskud med power og viden fra århundreder´s udvikling, kombineret med den seneste forskning. De indeholder den fineste grad af økologiske urter. And with “big pharma” having a monopoly on the development of new drugs, there’s little hope that this will change.