Ginseng plants are perennial herbs growing to a height of 50 cm and having corpulent roots resembling human form. P. ginseng is typically a shade-preferring plant exclusively growing under forest shade without the durable impact of direct sunshine. Ginseng was formerly a wild plant growing in the northeastern part of China and northern Korean peninsula. At present…

P. ginseng is collected from cultivated plants in China, Korea and Japan. Also called Asian ginseng it is indigenous to the mountainous forests of eastern Asia. P. quinquifolium called American Ginseng grows in rich woods in eastern USA and Canada. It is collected from cultivated stands and has been exported to China since the early 1700s. It…

It consists of the roots of panax ginsing (Araliaceae) and related species such as P. quinquifolium and P. notoginseng. Commercial Importance One of the most ancient drugs of China, ginseng is considered a universal medication in oriental medicine. It has been used for centuries as a tonic, a stimulant to overcome physical and mental fatigue and to counter many conditions…

The major digitalis producing countries are the United States, UK, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and the former USSR. In most of these countries D. lanata is the source drug. Some 1,000 tonnes of plant material are required annually to meet the world demand. In the long term patients require about 1 mg per day and the worldwide…

Foxglove leaves are claimed to be used externally by Welsh physicians and its poisonous nature was well known. It has been recorded to be used by a ‘witch’ healer for the treatment of dropsy. Though introduced into the London pharmacoepia in 1650, it was with William Withering’s published clinical findings in 1776 that it came…

The cardioactive glycoside content of D. purpurea leaves is 0.15% to 0.4% consisting of about 30 different structures. The fresh leaves contain purpurea glycoside A (50% of the glycoside mixture), purpurea glycoside B and glucogitaloxin. These possess at the C-3 position of the aglycone a linear chain of three digitoxose sugar moieties terminated by glucose. On drying, due…

D. purpurea is a common ornamental plant of England well known for its medicinal properties. Horticultural varieties grown as garden plants are low in therapeutic glycosides. For pharmaceutical purposes, cultivation is preferable to collection from wild plants because factors such as the climate, soil, age of the plant, season, storage and drying method and genetic makeup…

D. purpurea and Digitalis lanata are the two economically important sources of cardiac glycosides. Both are biennial or perennial herbs growing in semi-shady regions in the wild state. Presently the leaves are collected from cultivated plants. D. purpurea is common in UK and most of Europe and naturalized in northern and western USA and Canada. Major centres of cultivation are…

It consists of the dried leaves of the ‘purple foxglove’, Digitalis purpurea, belonging to the family Scrophulariaceae Commercial Importance Leaves of digitalis species contain medicinally important glycosides of the cardenolide group. Called cardiac glycosides, these C23 steroidal glycosides exert a slowing and strengthening effect on a failing heart. In conventional medicine, glycosides of digitalis are extensively employed…

Demand for diosgenin for pharmaceuticals is huge, equivalent to 10,000 tonnes of Dioscorea tuber per annum. Until 1970 Mexican yam was the only source of diosgenin for steroidal contraceptive manufacture. Following nationalization of the Mexican industry, prices increased drastically forcing the search for alternative sources of diosgenin and alternatives to diosgenin. Fenugreek seeds are exploited…