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Herbal Medicines You Already Prescribe: Conventional Pharmaceuticals Derived From Plants

Dr. Betsy W. Krueger

Whole Pet Healing

Practicing “herbal medicine” simply means using plants that are pharmacologically active to treat disease or to elicit a particular physiologic effect such as decreased inflammation or pain relief. This type of therapy has been used for thousands of years by healers in many different cultures all over the world.

Although western medical research has successfully identified a number of useful plant compounds, there are still many hundreds of medicinal plants and plant combinations that have yet to be characterized.

During the last 300 years, the active compounds contained in a number of traditional medicinal plants have been isolated by western scientists, including a number of life-saving drugs we use today like penicillin and digitalis (see below). These drugs, along with other plant-based medicines, are commonly used in veterinary practice. Examples include opiates and their derivatives like morphine, buprenorphine, hydrocodone (Hycodan); aspirin; most antibiotics; and even some chemotherapy drugs like vincristine and vinblastine. Human medicine utilizes an even wider range of chemotherapy agents derived from plants, e.g. vindesine, vinorelbine, vinflunine, etoposide, teniposide, topotecam, paclitaxel, and docetaxel.

Selected Pharmaceutical Drugs Derived from Plants