Drug prices are skyrocketing and people are shifting to alternative schemes of treatment like herbal medicines instead of prescription and over the counter drugs. Even before drugs have been formulated by man, herbal medicines have been used to treat wide variety of diseases in the ancient times. They have proven themselves to be effective, that's why they are still used even in the age of modern chemotherapies and laser technologies.

Unlike drugs that act only for specific disease, herbal medicines cure not just a single disease but many of them. There are even thousands of known herbal medicines but our list limits to those most widely used and are easily found. Here is a list of the five best herbal medicines and their corresponding benefits:

1. Garlic
A member of the onion family, the common household Garlic is one of the widely known potent herbal medicines. Garlic contains the substance allicin, which helps the body fight several kinds of infection. Some of the known benefits of garlic include lowering bad cholesterols and blood pressure, curing atherosclerosis, boosting the immune system, remedying tuberculosis, cough, and cold, treating sore throat and bad breath, preventing cancer, and acting as an antioxidant as well as an anticoagulant, and cure for rheumatism. It is also proven to have certain benefits for the heart, making it a very potent and important member of the herbal medicines.

2. Echinacea (Purple Coneflower)
Concoctions from this plant, which is indigenous to North America, are considered to have properties that can treat a wide arrange of diseases -- from common colds, flu, infections, even certain types of cancer. Other diseases that can be cured using Echinacea are respiratory problems, bronchitis, sore throat, enlarged prostate glands, urinary tract infections, vaginal yeast infections, ear infections, sinusitis, and hay fever.

3. Ginseng
Among the more widely known herbal medicines that are being processed and sold to the market, ginseng is essentially an adaptogen, a substance that aids the body in restoring itself to health and work minus the usual side effects normally observed when the dosage taken in exceeded the actual dose recommended. Ginseng is also extensively utilized to lower cholesterol, enhance vigor and stamina, trim down fatigue and stress effects, and thwart certain infections. Apart from these benefits, the plant also appears to have properties that can lower blood sugar, slow down aging, and aid in cancer treatment.

4. Ginkgo
This plant, also known as ginkgo biloba, has been in wide use chiefly throughout China and other Asian countries for thousands of years. The plant has been proven to improve blood flow and sexual performance, lengthen life span, improve heart and lungs functionality, and treat coughs, asthma, and acute allergic inflammations. These are the reasons which make this plant one of the best known and excellent-documented herbal nutritional supplements.

5. Feverfew
This plant is proven to be a very efficient remedy for dysmenorrhoea, slow menstrual flow, coughs, wheezing, and difficulty in breathing, and is also known to ease pain and swelling caused by insect bites, as well as solving certain digestive problems and treating migraine prophylaxis. It also has properties known to reduce polymorphonuclear leukocytes release in joints that lead to arthritis and inflammation.

There are still a lot of herbal medicines that you can find right in your own backyard. The key is just to be resourceful enough to know what herbal medicines you can actually plant by yourself and literally reap the health benefits.