Phytomedicine (phyto – plant) refers to an herbal medicine that is a whole-plant preparation, rather than a single isolated chemical compound. The herbal preparation derived from a whole plant or plant part is considered the active entity, even though it may actually contain hundreds of individual active components (cofactors). Active constituent concentrations may be misleading measures of potency if cofactors are not present. A further problem is that the important constituent is often unknown. Therefore, a phytomedicine represents the totality of the medicinal plant or one of its parts (such as root, leaf, flower, fruit, etc.), rather than a single isolated chemical compound.

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