Examples of medicinal properties extracted from Medicinal Aromatic Plants.

 Cynarin is a plant chemical found in the common artichoke (Cynara scolymus), and in Germany, a cynarin drug is sold for liver problems and hypertension which is simply a chemical extracted from the artichoke plant or a plant extract which has been standardized to contain a specific milligram amount of this one chemical. These products are manufactured by pharmaceutical companies, sold in pharmacies in Germany and a doctor’s prescription is required to purchase them. Another example is silymarin which is a chemical found in the milk thistle plant and natural milk thistle extracts standarized to contain specific amounts of silymarin are found in just about every health food store in the United States of America. Cephaelis ipecacuanha was discovered in a tropical plant and a drug was developed from this plant chemical called Ipecac which was used for many years to induce vomiting mostly if someone accidentally swallowed a poisonous or harmful substance. 

Ipecac can still be found in pharmacies in many third world countries but has been mostly replaced by other drugs in the United States of America. Other plant chemicals have been copied or synthesized by laboratories such as Qinine which was discovered in a rainforest tree (Cinchona ledgeriana) over 100 years ago. For many years the Qinine chemical was extracted from the bark of this tree and processed into pills to treat malaria. Today all Qinine drugs sold are manufactured chemically without the use of any tree bark.