§3.1 Natural Products and Herbs

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Publication year: 2022

§3.1 Natural Products and Herbs

§3.1.1 Definitions: Herbs and Natural Products

The U.S. Customs Court in Levy & Levis Co., Inc. v. United States¹ stated that "the common meaning of any term is a matter of law to be decided by the court through its own knowledge and through consultation of dictionaries, lexicons and other written authorities."² The Court defined herbs as plants, shrubs, or trees.³ The Court then further expanded the definition of herbs and stated:

"A herb is a seed plant not possessing a woody stem, but dying completely, or going down to the ground after flowering.⁴ A herb can also be a seed plant which does not develop woody or persistent tissue, as that of a shrub or tree, but is more or less soft or succulent.⁵ Also herb may be used as a term to describe herbaceous plants possessing certain properties and used for medicinal purposes, for flavoring, and in perfumes."⁶

Natural products are naturally occurring organic compounds that maintain life by regulating biological reactions. Natural products possess a variety of biological activities, requiring investigation of their molecular mechanisms to understand reactions occurring in living systems.⁷

However, the Customs Court in Pharmacia Fine Chemicals Inc. v. U.S. applied the definition ascribed to natural products in Schedule 4, Part 3, Item 439.10 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States and defined natural products as,

"Those substances found in nature which comprise whole plants and herbs, anatomical parts thereof, vegetable saps, extracts, secretions and other constituents thereof, glands or other animal organs, extracts, secretions and other constituents thereof, and which have not had changes in their molecular structure as found in nature."⁸

The Customs Court further stated natural product also

"means any product which has not been advanced in value or improved in the condition by shredding, grinding, chipping, crushing, distilling, evaporating, extracting by artificial mixing with other substances or by any other process or treatment beyond that which is essential to its proper packing and the prevention of decay or deterioration pending manufacturer; and natural products, may mean any product which has been advanced in value or improved in condition from its crude state by any mechanical or physical process whatever beyond that which is essential to its proper packing and the prevention of decay or deterioration pending manufacture, but does not include any product which has been artificially mixed with other substances or the molecular structure of which as found in nature has been changed."⁹

§3.1.2 Medicinal Plants, Herbs, Natural Products, and Their Uses

Herbs, plants, and natural products contain multitudes of nutrients and natural chemicals. They may provide an array of health benefits, and in their crude form have been known and used for many centuries by and among isolated cultures spread across all the continents of the world. Generally, the use of these natural products and plants for medicinal purposes by indigenous people of different cultures is referred to as Herbalism.¹⁰

Herbalism as now practiced is through the use of analytical techniques to identify and standardize extracts of herbs, thereby making them more refined for use. This is referred to as phytotherapy,¹¹ while the formal study of natural products (vegetables, animals, and minerals) used in medicine in the industrialized world is referred to as pharmacognosy.¹² Today, herbs and natural products are used as therapeutic medicines, food supplements, as spices in foods, and also in the production of perfumes.

§3.1.3 Classification/Nomenclature of Medicinal Plants and Herbs

§3.1.3.1 Latin Binomials

Cultures all over the world have a history of knowledge about the natural world around them, for example by identifying and using plants. Indigenous people identify these plants with unique names. Although these common names are useful, they are limited because they are often non-transferrable, i.e., in other places the same plant might have a different common name or a different usage, and, in fact, the same name might apply to a different plant.¹³

In the past, plant classification or organization was based on the uses of plants. Some were used as vegetables and fruits, while others were used as spices for foods. Others plants were a source of sugar or starch, while some served as sources of oil.¹⁴

Integration of people of different cultures brought a unique problem to this classification based on their uses. Though the scientific community recognizes that uses of plants may not be similar, names serve to educate about plants, inside of a culture and between different cultures. Scientists thus created a binomial naming system,¹⁵ called the binomial nomenclature, to organize the plant kingdom according to the relationships among...