Section 4December 9, 1997, Sec./Art. 4

Definition of Terms. - As used in this Act, the following terms shall mean:

(a) "Traditional and alternative health care" - the sum total of knowledge, skills and practices on health care, other than those embodied in biomedicine, used in the prevention, diagnosis and elimination of physical or mental disorder.

(b) "Traditional medicine" - the sum total of knowledge, skills, and practice on health care, not necessarily explicable in the context of modern, scientific philosophical framework, but recognized by the people to help maintain and improve their health towards the wholeness of their being, the community and society, and their interrelations based on culture, history, heritage, and consciousness.

(c) "Biomedicine" - that discipline of medical care advocating therapy with remedies that produce effects differing from those of the diseases treated. It is also called "allopathy","western medicine", "orthodox medicine", or "cosmopolitan medicine".

(d) "Alternative health care modalities" other forms of non-allopathic, occasionally non-indigenous or imported healing methods, though not necessarily practiced for centuries nor handed down from one generation to another. Some alternative health care modalities include reflexology, acupressure, chiropractics, nutritional therapy, and other similar methods.

(e) "Herbal medicines" - finished, labelled, medicinal products that contain as active ingredient/s serial or underground part/s of plant or other materials or combination thereof, whether in the crude state or as plant preparations.

Plant material includes juices, gums, fatty oils, essential oils, and other substances of this nature. Herbal medicines, however, may contain excipients in addition to the active ingredient(s). Medicines containing plant material(s) combined with chemically-defined active substances, including chemically-defined, isolated constituents of plants, are not considered to be herbal medicines.

(f) "Natural product" - those foods that grow spontaneously in nature whether or not they are tended by man. It also refers to foods that have been prepared from grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, meats, fish, eggs, honey, raw milk, and the like, without the use or addition of additives, preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, or manufactured chemicals of any sort after harvest or slaughter.

(g) "Manufacture" - any and all operations involved in the production, including preparation, propagation, processing, formulating, filling, packing, repacking, altering, ornamenting, finishing, or otherwise changing the container, wrapper, or labelling of a consumer product in the furtherance of the distribution of the same from the original place of manufacture to the person who makes the final delivery or sale to the ultimate consumer.

(h) "Traditional healers" - the relatively old, highly respected people with a profound knowledge of traditional remedies.

(i) "Intellectual property rights" - is the legal basis by which the indigenous communities exercise their rights to have access to, protect, control over their cultural knowledge and product, including, but not limited to, traditional medicines, and includes the right to receive compensation for it.

ARTICLE III

THE PHILIPPINE INSTITUTE OF TRADITIONAL AND ALTERNATIVE HEALTH CARE