Question: what plants can be used to create medicine

Liz Barron-Majerik answered on 21 Mar 2023:

There are LOTS of plants that can be used medicinally. For a long time, they were our only source of medicine, but a lot of that knowledge has been lost over time. That is why it is really important that we maintain the diverse range of plant species, as we don’t know which chemicals they make could be medicines for diseases we currently don’t have a treatment for.

Sometimes it can be something simple like peppermint for calming your digestive system, or comfrey leaves are good sources of anti-inflammatory chemicals and can soothe bruises. Or the plant could be a starting point for the creation of an even better medicine. For example knowing that people chewed the bark from certain trees when they had toothache, was how we discovered Asprin, but the version we get in tablets is kinder on your stomach as scientists have modified the chemical involved.