Botanical treatments are generally accepted as part of mainstream medical treatment around the world except in the United States, where herbal remedies are sold as dietary supplements.
Research on F. cirrhosa and its botanical relatives has generally been conducted in China and has focused on pharmacological investigation.
Because Ayurveda had been outside the Western scientific system for years, research in the United States is new.
There has been no formal scientific research conducted on Native American healing practices. Medicine people do not write down their practices out of fear that they might be misused by people who are not trained in their sacred ways.
Research in the West has been largely confined to study of the herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine as distinct from food cures.
Some forms of pranic healing, including yoga, Ayurveda, and traditional Chinese medicine, have been intensively studied.
The Office of Alternative Medicine of the National Institute of Health is currently funding research in the use of acupuncture for treating depression and attention-deficit disorder.
There is much research being done in botany. One example is the study of daylily rust and how it is formed and what can be done to prevent it. There are companies studying crops to find plants that provide more food. There is also research on chemicals that will prevent weeds or insect pests.
Researchers continue to study the effects and applications of the technique in the fields of education, preventive medicine, and rehabilitation.
In 1998, an extensive review of such single-treatment studies found that naturopathic healing methods were effective for 15 different medical conditions, including osteoarthritis, asthma, and middle ear infections.
In February 2004, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine began a comprehensive study of chromium as a therapy for insulin resistance.
One highly contested issue between alternative medicine and mainstream dentistry surrounds mercury poisoning.
Treatments for cancer are one of the areas where allopathic medicine disapproves most strongly of alternative medicine, and consequently these natural treatments are the subject of much adverse publicity.