Complete the text with the correct forms of the verbs in brackets.

Herbal Medicine

Herbal medicine, also called botanic medicine or phytomedicine, 1

____________ (refer) to the use of any plant’s seeds, berries, roots, leaves, bark
or flowers for medicinal purposes. Long practiced outside of conventional
medicine, herbalism 2 ____________ (become) more common as up-dated
researches showed its value in the treatment and prevention of disease.
Plants 3 ____________ (use) for medicinal purposes long before recorded
history. For example, ancient African and Native American tribes 4
____________ (use) herbs in their healing rituals, while others 5 ____________
(develop) traditional medical systems (e.g., Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese
Medicine) in which herbal therapies 6 ____________ (use) systematically.
Scientists 7 ____________ (find) that people in different parts of the globe
tended to use the same or similar plants for the same purposes.
In the early 19th century, when methods of chemical analysis first 8
____________ (become) available, scientists 9 ____________ (begin) extracting
and 10 ____________ (modify) the active ingredients from plants. Later,
chemists began 11 ____________ (make) their own version of plant compounds,
12 ____________ (begin) the transition from raw herbs to synthetic
pharmaceuticals. Over time, the use of herbal medicines 13 ____________
(decline) in favor of pharmaceuticals. Recently, the World Health Organization
14 ____________ (estimate) that 80% of people worldwide 15 ____________
(rely) on herbal medicines for some aspect of their primary healthcare. In the last
twenty years in the United States, increasing public dissatisfaction with the cost
of prescription medications, 16 ____________ (combine) with an interest in 17
____________ (return) to natural and organic remedies, 18 ____________ (lead)
to an increase in the use of herbal medicines. In Germany, roughly 600 to 700
plant-based medicines 19 ____________ (be) available and 20 ____________
(prescribe) by approximately 70% of German physicians.
Keys

1. refers
2. is becoming/has become
3. had been used
4. used
5. developed
6. were used
7. found
8. became
9. began
10. modifying
11. making
12. beginning
13. declined
14. estimated
15. rely
16. combined
17. returning
18. has led
19. are
20. are prescribed