Classification of Herbal Drugs

Classification of Herbal Drugs

Plants are very valuable for life and human without any doubt. For the purposes of economic botany we are most interested in that branch of medical science which deals with the drug plants themselves. The most valuable of the drugs and drug plants have been standardized as a result of the Pure Food and Drug Act, of 1906.

Comparatively few drug plants are cultivated. Most of the supply of drugs is obtained from wild plants growing in all parts of the world, and especially in the tropics. These drug plants are collected and prepared in a crude way for shipment, and eventually reach the centres of the drug trade in this country and abroad. In some instances one country or another has built up a monopoly of some particular drug. Japan, for example, formerly controlled the output of camphor, agar, and pyrethrum, while the Dutch in Java supplied nearly all the quinine that entered the world trade. The United States is an important market for drug plants. From 1920 to 1930 the importation of crude drugs increased 140 percent. Most of the processing of the crude material is carried on in the United States. In addition, several drugs are produced in this country, either from wild or cultivated sources. These include ginseng, goldenseal, cascara, digitalis, hemp, and wormseed. Still others, such as belladonna, henbane, and stramonium, are grown during periods of shortages.

The classification of drugs and drug plants is difficult for there are many methods of approach. The classification might be based on the chemical nature or the therapeutic value of the plant product, the natural affinities of the various species, or the morphology of the plant organ from which the drug is obtained. For our purposes it seems best to consider the more important drug plants on a morphological basis. In general, we find that the active principles are present in the storage organs of the plants, particularly in roots and seeds, and to a lesser extent in leaves, bark, wood, or other parts of the plant. The total amount of the chemical substances present in any particular organ is so small that it is hard to ascribe any biological significance to it. There may be some slight protective function, but probably these principles, which are so valuable to man in the treatment of diseases, are merely waste products of the metabolism of the plants.

 

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