★ Must-know
Colchicum drug is a small, hard, dark-brown globular part from a colchicaceous plant and is used as an antigout agent and source of colchicine.
Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), a fabaceous drug, is small, quadrangular, grey-yellow, and grooved; it is an anabolic, stimulant, and hypoglycemic agent.
Cultivated flax (Linum usitatissimum) has smooth, shiny, brown, almond-shaped flattened seeds and is anti-inflammatory, laxative, and emollient.
Further detail
Tonka bean (Dipteryx odorata) is the only drug described as large, black, elongated, and flattened; it is anticoagulant and yields coumarin.
Horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) is a large dark-brown seed with a globular and a flattened part and a whitish hilum; it is anti-inflammatory and anti-oedematous and yields aescin.
Kola nut (Cola acuminata) is a large, smooth, hard, mahogany-brown drug with two cotyledons and stimulant and antidepressant properties.
★ Must-know
Chinese star anise (Illicium verum) is a hard, rough, reddish-brown, dehiscent dry fruit formed of star-shaped follicles with oval brown seeds; it is stomachic, carminative, eupeptic, and used as a condiment.
Green anise (Pimpinella anisum) is a brown, ovoid dry diakene with short rough hairs and mericarps joined to a long pedicel; it is antispasmodic, galactagogue, carminative, eupeptic, and used as a condiment.
Further detail
Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) is an ovoid or rounded, grey-reddish drug with many grooves and a wrinkled surface; it is carminative and stimulant.
Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) is a dry, indehiscent, black achene mottled yellow and slightly wrinkled; it is hepatoprotective, cholagogue, and choleretic.
Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) has hard, brittle, light-brown spherical dry diakenes with adherent mericarps; it is stimulant, carminative, eupeptic, and used as a condiment.
Sweet fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) has large, slightly curved, glabrous, grooved diakenes that are pale green to yellow; it is expectorant, diuretic, and antispasmodic.
★ Must-know
📌 Ceylon cinnamon has thin, light-brown fragments with a smooth outer face and short projecting white fibers, whereas Chinese cinnamon is darker reddish-brown, especially inside, with a poorly scraped outer face and no lichens or lenticels.
Further detail
Caraway (Carum carvi) has small, elongated, slightly curved brown diakenes and a long pedicel; it is stimulant, anthelmintic, carminative, eupeptic, and used as a condiment.
Cumin (Cuminum cyminum) has light brown-green, hairy diakenes and a short pedicel; it is galactagogue and emmenagogue.
Bourdaine (Rhamnus frangula) has bark with a dark-brown wrinkled outer surface bearing white transverse lenticels and a yellow-orange fibrous inner surface; it is laxative and purgative.
★ Must-know
Red cinchona (Cinchona succirubra) has thick, hard, reddish-brown bark fragments with a transversely striated, suber-bearing outer surface and a yellow or red inner surface; it is antimalarial, antipyretic, and a bitter tonic.
Chinese ephedra (Ephedra sinica) is a yellow-green stem with fine longitudinal striations, black swellings between branches, and leaves reduced to scales; it is antiasthmatic, lipolytic, a nasal decongestant, and is used in resuscitation and blood-pressure regulation.
Liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) root is a dark cylindrical stick with a yellow interior, sometimes peeled and grooved; its rhizome has central pith, and the drug is antiulcer, antispasmodic, sweetening, and anti-inflammatory.
Further detail
Fucus vesiculosus is a dried fucoid thallus consisting of olive-brown foliar blade fragments with globular floats; it stimulates blood circulation and is depurative and laxative.
Ginseng (Panax ginseng) consists of yellowish-white, longitundinally wrinkled fragments divided into several human-shaped branches; it is anti-asthenic, a central nervous system stimulant, hypoglycemic, and anti-inflammatory.
★ Must-know
Butcher’s broom (Ruscus aculeatus) rhizome consists of light-brown, knotted, striated fragments that are very fibrous when broken and have thinner roots; it is diuretic, anti-haemorrhoidal, anti-oedematous, vasoconstrictive, and anti-inflammatory.
Hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha) flowering tops have corymbs with five short triangular sepals and five white petals; the drug is coronary vasodilator, cardiotonic, antispasmodic, and sedative.
Further detail
Turmeric (Curcuma longa) has hard fragments with an orange-yellow break and a grey-yellow outer surface; it is cholagogue, choleretic, immunomodulatory, and anti-inflammatory.
Official lavender (Lavandula vera) flowering tops have small violet flowers, a grey-blue veined tubular calyx, and a weakly bilabiate corolla; they are calming, analgesic, anxiolytic, antiseptic, hypotensive, and antispasmodic.
★ Must-know
📌 Roman chamomile has a large flower head and is cholagogue, emmenagogue, anti-inflammatory, and stomachic, whereas German chamomile has a small flower head and is choleretic, ulcer-protective, sedative, anti-inflammatory, and stomachic.
Further detail
Mallow (Malva sylvestris) flowers have three free oblong epicalyx segments and a corolla of five blue-violet petals; they are laxative, anti-inflammatory, and emollient.
Centaury (Erythraea centaurium) flowering tops have shortly pedicellate flowers in biparous cymes, with a gamosepalous calyx and pink corolla; the drug is stomachic, choleretic, laxative, aperitif, depurative, and anthelmintic.
Linden (Tilia platyphyllos) drug consists of inflorescences and their bracts, with five to ten flowers per cyme and a membranous yellow-green bract; it is emollient, calming, and hypnotic.
Poppy (Papaver rhoeas) drug consists of petals and is emollient, sedative, and antitussive.
Clove (Eugenia caryophyllata) drug consists of flower buds and is dental analgesic, insecticidal, and bactericidal.
★ Must-know
Red vine (Vitis vinifera) has brittle, palmately lobed, red-purple leaves; it is anti-inflammatory, astringent, angioprotective through vitamin P, and haemostatic.
Official sage (Salvia officinalis) has petiolate, oblong, pointed leaves or sessile, thick, toothed, rough, reticulate grey-green blades; it is antisudoral, hypoglycemic, choleretic, cholagogue, emmenagogue, depurative, and used as a condiment.
Oleander (Nerium oleander) has large green flattened leaves with a prominent midrib and parallel veins; its leaves contain toxic oleandrin, and the drug is cardiotonic, acaricidal, and antifungal.
Further detail
Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) has pale-green, fan-shaped bilobed leaves that turn yellow; it is anti-inflammatory, antiallergic, capillary-protective, and diuretic.
Lemon verbena (Aloysia citriodora) has pale yellow-green, wavy, entire-margined leaves rolled onto the upper surface; it is stomachic, eupeptic, antispasmodic, mildly sedative, and febrifuge.
Boldo (Peumus boldus) has leaves with a blistered upper surface bearing many small protuberances; it is cholagogue, choleretic, diuretic, and sedative.
★ Must-know
Belladonna (Atropa belladonna) has petiolate dark-green leaves, often crumpled and rolled, with a thin acuminate blade; it is parasympatholytic through atropine.
Purple foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) has large broken leaves with an oval blade, grey-green prominent upper surface, and very hairy whitish-green lower surface with raised veins; it is diuretic and cardiotonic.
Further detail
White henbane (Hyoscyamus albus) drug is often accompanied by fragments of scorpioid inflorescences bearing very hairy, veined, bell-shaped calyces; it is narcotic, analgesic, sedative to the central nervous system, and parasympatholytic.
Datura (Datura stramonium) has dark-green leaves asymmetrical at the base associated with a spiny capsule; it is a central nervous system sedative and parasympatholytic.
Belladonna, henbane, and datura are parasympatholytic; foxglove is cardiotonic.
★ Must-know
Further detail
Henna (Lawsonia inermis) has small, fragile, glabrous leaves that are light green when fresh and become reddish-brown during storage; it is emmenagogue, anti-infective, antiulcer, astringent, dyeing, and vulnerary.
Globularia (Globularia alypum) has spatulate leaves with leathery grey-green blades; it is purgative and diuretic.
Common ash (Fraxinus excelsior) has compound leaves and flattened samara fruits; it is diuretic, laxative, and antirheumatic.
Sea squill (Drimia maritima) drug consists of bulb scales in flattened, curved, horn-like strips that are reddish-brown or yellowish-white; it is cardiotonic, diuretic, and, in the red variety, a rat poison.
★ Must-know
Further detail
Common thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is antiseptic, antispasmodic, eupeptic, choleretic, and used as a condiment.
White horehound (Marrubium vulgare) is antipyretic, cholagogue, anti-infective, depurative, and a cardiac sedative.
Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) is a respiratory antiseptic, hypoglycemic, and balsamic drug.
★ Must-know
Further detail
Peru balsam (Myroxylon pereirae) is a thick, dark-brown liquid oleoresin from a fabaceous papilionoid plant; it is antiseptic, cicatrizant, antipruritic, and parasiticidal.
Frankincense, or olibanum (Boswellia carterri, also given as Boswellia sacra), is a resin obtained by incising the trunk and occurs as irregular pale-yellow to yellow-reddish globular or ovoid tears; it is antiseptic, stimulant, and anti-inflammatory.
★ Must-know
Oak gall (Quercus infectoria) is an outgrowth caused by the gall wasp’s sting and egg-laying; it is a hard, spherical, grey-brown mass with a spiny surface and is astringent, haemostatic, and antiseptic.
Arabic gum (Acacia verek) is a product exuded from branches and occurs as rounded blond or reddish tears; it is emollient, antitussive, emulsifying, and an excipient for solid dosage forms.
Further detail
Take a 27-question practice quiz on Medicinal Plants and Their Drugs, with every answer explained.
1. Which medicinal role is associated with the small, hard, dark-brown globular part of the colchicaceous colchicum plant?
2. A small, quadrangular, grey-yellow seed with grooves is identified as fenugreek; which set of effects is associated with it?
Memorize the key concepts of Medicinal Plants and Their Drugs with 90 flashcards.
What is the source and use of colchicum drug?
A small, hard, dark-brown globular part of a colchicaceous plant, used as an antigout agent and source of colchicine.
What shape and color characterize fenugreek drug?
Small, quadrangular, grey-yellow, and grooved.
What medicinal properties does fenugreek have?
It is anabolic, stimulant, and hypoglycemic.
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