Medicinal plant: plant intended mainly for pharmaceutical use
Medicinal plant : broader term, which serves to identify those plants that also use herbal, dietary, cosmetic and health in general.
The distinction, to tell the truth, is hardly made anymore and the two terms are considered almost synonymous. The used part of a plant is the one that is used for health purposes. This part, which can also be the whole plant, is harvested to determine preparations, medicaments, which have a health-related aspect. The part of the plant used does not necessarily become drugs; in fact, it represents the part used so that it can become drug or become itself the element that characterizes the medicinal preparation.
Let's look at some examples.
Bitter orange, it is a drug if the exocarp of the fruit or flavedo, is appropriately treated, that is dried; the part of the bitter orange plant in this case has become a drug. The pericarp of the exsiderate has become a drug because it is suitably treated, or dried. If we take a cosmetic product instead, inside there is bitter orange, or rather the essential oil of bitter orange. The essential oil or the essence of bitter orange is not an oil like the olive oil, because from the chemical point of view it is completely different, even though it is defined as oil. The essential oil is a predominantly terpene mixture. In this case the essential oil of bitter orange is obtained from the fresh pericarp, not properly treated; therefore, the pericarp of the experiment is used fresh to obtain the essential oil.
In this case the part used is used both to become a drug and to give another health product such as essential oil. Calling the pericarp of the bitter orange drug when this is used to get the essential oil is improper; we can call it drug when we know this distinction.
In the case of mint, which is a hybrid (deriving from the crossing of two different but similar species of the same genus), the leaves are treated; in herbal teas these are present as a dried leaf drug, then treated appropriately; the essential oil of mint, instead, is characterized by menthol, terpene, monoterpene; the essential oil of mint is obtained from fresh leaves, so fresh that often, as with many essences, they are distilled immediately after harvesting on the sidelines, to avoid the degrading actions that begin immediately after harvest.
Drugs and part used must be distinguished and characterized.
Aloe vera has leaves as its part; it is a medicinal plant, the source, while the leaves are the part used and are always used fresh. Not only the famous gel is obtained from the aloe leaf, but two important types of products. In this case, the drug is the part obtained from the extraction processes on the leaves, treated appropriately.
Aloe juice : product obtained from leaking leaves; the juice thus obtained is cooked on a high heat, until it becomes a solid glassy consistency. Red-brownish in color, extremely bitter and spicy with purgative function, this juice is used in the formulation of stimulant, aperitif and digestive laxative products. Depending on the concentration of the juice I get the aperitif effect, the bitter taste determined by anthraquinones, or the stimulating laxative effect, if the juice concentration is high.
Aloe vera gel : the leaves, deprived of substances with aperitif and laxative activity, are squeezed and give jellifying substances of predominantly carbohydrate, heteropolysaccharidic nature, with disparate functions: cicatrizant for topical use, anti-slip, adaptogen, remineralising and vitaminizing for internal use.
