Saw Palmetto
Saw palmetto is used in several forms of traditional medicine. Native Americans used the fruit for food and in the treatment of a variety of urinary and reproductive system problems. The Mayans drank it as a tonic, and the Seminoles used the berries as an expectorant and antiseptic.
The crude extract was used for at least 200 years for various conditions including asthenia (weakness), recovery from major illness, and urogenital problems. For instance, the eclectic medicine practitioner H. W. Felter wrote of it, "Saw palmetto is a nerve sedative, expectorant, and a nutritive tonic, acting kindly upon the digestive tract...Its most direct action appears to be upon the reproductive organs when undergoing waste of tissue...
Saw palmetto extract is the most popular herbal preparation taken for benign prostatic hyperplasia, a common condition in older men. Early re search indicated that the extract is well-tolerated and suggested "mild to moderate improvement in urinary symptoms and flow measures and also has been suggested as a potential treatment for male pattern baldness.