Plants have formed the basis of traditional medicine for thousands of years. The first records are from Mesopotamia and date from about 2600BC, and include use of cedar, cypress, liquorice, myrrh and opium poppy.

Traditional medicine continues to be based on plants, with Indian medicine relying on around 7,000 different species. In 1990, Chinese doctors used 700,000 tons of plant material, and in 1994, China exported US$ 2 billion worth of plant drugs. In the USA, herbal medicines are worth around $1.6 billion annually. Expand this for other countries and it is big business! Several important drugs in modern medicine are derived from plants.

• Opium poppy – the source of morphine and codeine.
• Yew – contains taxol, a novel drug used to fight cancer.
• Coconut Oil – dry skin treatment.
• Aloe Vera – Skin protection.

Several of the drugs sold today are simple synthetic modifications or copies of the naturally obtained substances. Plant ingredients are increasingly being used today in cosmetics mostly because of the poor image of animal-derived products.

Categories: Plants