Drug: plant or part of plant used after having been properly treated.
First of all, it is necessary to know how to correctly collect the plant or a part of it in order to maintain the morphological and macro-microscopic characteristics reported in the Pharmacopoeia. The collection of these plants or of the parts used must be performed in an extremely specialized and technical manner, so that they remain intact. If the drug does not maintain the morphological and macroscopic characteristics, then it loses medicinal interest, value and importance. Before harvesting it is necessary to know where to collect and which are the main sources of drug supply.
One of the main sources of supply of drugs is given by spontaneous plants (actually almost disappeared except for drugs of local interest, circumscribed), whose quality is extremely variable in relation to the collection, exposure to the sun, the quantity of water available, to ecological factors, to ontogenetic internal factors, to balsamic time and to the ontogenetic stage which varies according to the species; there are also important internal factors, such as those of a genetic nature, which cannot be assessed if the plants are spontaneous, unless they have a morphologically evident phenotype. In any case, sourcing from wild plants basically has nothing to do with the broader market - dedicated to the production of commercial health preparations - for which it is a matter of sourcing from cultivated plants.
The cultivated plants are very numerous; they are almost the totality of the species present on the market. Many are mainly of herbalist interest, others of mainly pharmaceutical interest, others of exclusively pharmaceutical interest. The Digitalis purpurea, for example, has an exclusively pharmaceutical, non-phytotherapic interest, because it is a cardiac plant that acts on the tired heart; its active principles are contained in pharmaceutical products that can be sold only upon presentation of a regular medical prescription, therefore not of herbal competence. All this if we consider only the phytotherapy aspect; if we consider the homeopathic one instead, the digital has considerable importance, since its active principle is diluted thousands of times until losing the traditional pharmaceutical effect.
An aspect linked to the nature of the source should be added to the supply of drugs. Drugs, in fact, are not only derived from plant sources, but can also be of animal and mineral nature.
Chitosan is a drug of animal origin with herbal interest linked to its adsorbent properties. Used to lose weight in dietary regimes, it is obtained by the acetylation of chitin, a carbohydrate product derived from shellfish shells. Honey is also a drug of animal origin, such as propolis and royal jelly.
The ambergris is a drug of animal origin of extreme importance in the cosmetic field because it fixes the perfumes; extremely valuable because pathological secretion of the cetacean intestine: it is given by lipophilic-steroid clusters with important cosmetic properties.
Appreciated are the fats of fish origin, with important dietary properties, omega 6 and 3.
On the other hand, coal (of animal and vegetable origin) is of a mineral nature - which is nothing but the product of the combustion of something organic - or clay - a typical mineral drug used in the cosmetic and dermofunctional field, thanks to its properties adsorbents and firming - or delicate clays for treating boils or acne.
Let's concentrate on plants now.
