Go for Growth.

If you're not taking ginkgo to bolster your brain cells or St John's Wort to calm your savage beast, you probably know someone who is. So think about whether you want to have a stake in what may be the next growth sector-herbs and vitamins. Analysts are charting a growing trend toward self-medication-especially with so-called natural products and vitamins.

Over the 1994-1998 period, growth rates in sales of vitamins and dietary supplements in the U.S., Italy, and the U.K. exceeded 50%, according to a Euromonitor report. Americans consumed about $6.8 billion worth of these products in 1998. Dietary supplements such as tonics and nutritive drinks accounted for just …