# Medicines derived from herbs **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 30, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicines-derived-from-herbs/562409 "2010-11-30T15:02:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicines-derived-from-herbs/562409/1 "2010-11-30T15:02:36Z")
Herb - a plant with medicinal qualities. There are many medicinal substances approved by the AMA/FDA that derived from herbs: foxglove, aspirin, quinine, morphine, ephedrine, lithium and you can also include things like pot, tobacco, coffee, valarien, kava kava, kratom, etc. because they all have some kind of property that addresses some form of human need that they will temporarily allieve. I am wondering what approx. percentages of approved medicines either came directly or indirectly from and herb. If you have any valid sources, please include them. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicines-derived-from-herbs/562409/2 "2010-11-30T15:34:09Z")
A significant fraction of FDA approved drugs are “natural products”: compounds found in nature that have some useful medicinal property. Some of these are found in herbs as you mention, but many others were discovered in microbes or random odd critters like [marine sponges](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discodermolide). [Here’s a paper](http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/np068054v) that gives a breakdown of FDA approved natural products between 1981 and 2006. In summary: 5% are unmodified natural products. Usually though these will still be chemically synthesized so they can be produced in large enough quantities. The chemically synthesized drug is identical to that extracted from the original source. There aren’t enough yew trees in the world to yield enough [taxol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxol) for all the cancer patients that need it. 23% are modified natural products – they’ve got some relatively minor chemical change which improves the pharmacological properties. 14% are synthetic but in part are based on useful chemical structures found in natural products. 4% are completely synthetic but designed to mimic some other natural product. ETA: This paper doesn’t specify the original source for each natural product – but some significant fraction of the above percentages are based on plants. If you were sufficiently motivated you could look that up for each of the listed compounds. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicines-derived-from-herbs/562409/3 "2010-11-30T16:50:11Z")
> [@jakesteele](#): > > Herb - a plant with medicinal qualities. > > There are many medicinal substances approved by the AMA/FDA that derived from herbs: foxglove, aspirin, quinine, morphine, ephedrine, lithium and you can also include things like pot, tobacco, coffee, valarien, kava kava, kratom, etc. because they all have some kind of property that addresses some form of human need that they will temporarily allieve. > > I am wondering what approx. percentages of approved medicines either came directly or indirectly from and herb. > > If you have any valid sources, please include them. [Nitpick]Lithium is a mineral; it’s not derived from herbs.[/Nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicines-derived-from-herbs/562409/4 "2010-11-30T18:09:34Z")
A nit to pick: Lithium is an element. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicines-derived-from-herbs/562409/5 "2010-11-30T18:27:36Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > A nit to pick: Lithium is an element. Indeed. But the OP was not referring to elemental lithium, because that’s not a medication. In this context lithium is shorthand for compounds such as lithium carbonate, which is a mineral. ---
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicines-derived-from-herbs/562409/6 "2010-11-30T23:25:35Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > Indeed. But the OP was not referring to elemental lithium, because that’s not a medication. In this context lithium is shorthand for compounds such as lithium carbonate, which is a mineral. Although, I am looking for herbs, I would extend that umbrella to include things like lithium. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicines-derived-from-herbs/562409/7 "2010-12-01T02:29:41Z")
> [@jakesteele](#): > > Although, I am looking for herbs, I would extend that umbrella to include things like lithium. By which you mean any naturally occurring substance? ---
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2010, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicines-derived-from-herbs/562409/8 "2010-12-01T08:10:40Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > By which you mean any naturally occurring substance? Yeah, but that can be extended to include almost anything that makes any type of med. Primarily I am looking for things like foxglove, aspirin, quinine, etc. Something that was used traditionally for specific reasons and then later refined by science to make what we think of as medicine today. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicines-derived-from-herbs/562409/10 "2011-08-15T06:42:50Z")
> [@jakesteele](#): > > Herb - a plant with medicinal qualities.. > [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > A nit to pick: Lithium is an element. If we’re going to pick nits, we should note that herbs don’t necessarily have medicinal qualities, either: most of the ones you’d use for cooking don’t, for example, and lots of them are just ornamental. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicines-derived-from-herbs/562409/11 "2011-08-15T13:13:22Z")
More nits: Valerian and kava are not “FDA-approved drugs” - they are legally marketed as supplements under the DSHEA legislation but have not gone through a drug approval process (if they had, makers of kava would have had to run large trials just to address safety, owing to concerns over liver toxicity). Revival of this thread does provide a useful counterpoint to the argument of alt med advocates, who incessantly claim that no one in the pharma industry is interested in developing natural products because you can’t patent them. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicines-derived-from-herbs/562409/12 "2011-08-15T16:30:58Z")
I don’t think lithium is a naturally-occurring substance, either. The ore would all be some sort of compound of it (probably an oxide), which would need to be chemically processed in some way to get metallic lithium.