Nature is more than the sum of it's parts

"Though companies cannot patent natural plants in their whole form, they can patent plants' individual ingredients after a long, painstaking process of breaking down the plant into its components, isolating active ingredients and then claiming to have "discovered" these natural ingredients."

They can also make a synthetic version, and often do, since those are easily patentable.  Either way, neither the synthetic version nor the isolated compound are natural or likely to be compatible with our bodies, because neither are found in that form in nature.  In the synthetic version, we have a substance that our bodies have not naturally adapted to or encountered.  In the isolated compound form, we have a single compound instead of the compound together with all the synergistic components found in the natural plant - which is how we encounter it in nature.

Nature works synergistically, just like the human body itself, where the total organism is much greater than the sum of the parts.  Remove one key supporting compound and you have changed the effectiveness and compatibility of the entire substance.  Similarly, a deficiency in one vital nutrient among a great many can cause other nutrients to be less effectively utilized in the human body, just as an impairment in one organ or system in the body can cause impairments in others and lead to poor overall health for the entire body.

Big Pharma's scientists either fail to realize that, or else don't care because only the unnatural synthetics and isolates are patentable and profitable.  Which is no doubt why over 95% of all FDA approved drugs have side effects.  And which fits right in with the great failing of mainstream medicine itself - treating the body as a collection of parts and only treating the part where a symptom manifests itself instead of treating the underlying causes and the whole body.

When man plays God, or when profit becomes God, mankind invariably suffers.

DQ