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    Plant Constituents: The Chemistry of Plants

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    NeanderthanPisdashioStuart
    The document discusses plant constituents and their importance from different perspectives. To a pharmacist, active plant ingredients have medical value when isolated, but to a medical herbalist, the whole plant must be considered as its constituents work together. While studying plant chemistry provides value, it is most useful when seen in the context of the whole plant and its holistic effects. The document also lists common classes of physiologically active plant constituents.

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    Plant Constituents: The Chemistry of Plants

    Uploaded by

    NeanderthanPisdashioStuart
    178 views1 page
    The document discusses plant constituents and their importance from different perspectives. To a pharmacist, active plant ingredients have medical value when isolated, but to a medical herbalist, the whole plant must be considered as its constituents work together. While studying plant chemistry provides value, it is most useful when seen in the context of the whole plant and its holistic effects. The document also lists common classes of physiologically active plant constituents.

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    The document discusses plant constituents and their importance from different perspectives. To a pharmacist, active plant ingredients have medical value when isolated, but to a medical herbalist, the whole plant must be considered as its constituents work together. While studying plant chemistry provides value, it is most useful when seen in the context of the whole plant and its holistic effects. The document also lists common classes of physiologically active plant constituents.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    178 views1 page

    Plant Constituents: The Chemistry of Plants

    Uploaded by

    NeanderthanPisdashioStuart
    The document discusses plant constituents and their importance from different perspectives. To a pharmacist, active plant ingredients have medical value when isolated, but to a medical herbalist, the whole plant must be considered as its constituents work together. While studying plant chemistry provides value, it is most useful when seen in the context of the whole plant and its holistic effects. The document also lists common classes of physiologically active plant constituents.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Plant Constituents: The Chemistry of Plants

    To a pharmacist, these are the active ingredients of the plant, the chemicals that have a marked,
    definable physiological and therefore, possibly medical activity upon the body. These constituents and
    their actions within the body are also referred to as their pharmacology.

    These active ingredients are not of immense interest to a medical herbalist, because the focus is on
    using whole plants for whole people. Knowing chemical components and actions in isolation from the
    rest of the plant, does not tell us much about the activity of the plant itself. This does not deny the value
    of studying such plant constituents, as long as it takes its place within a holistic context of therapeutics.

    Plant chemistry includes the miracle of photosynthesis, plant respiration, structure, growth,
    development, and reproduction. Much of the chemical basis of life is common to both plants and
    animals. From a holistic perspective the whole of the plant must be respected as an integrated
    biologically evolved unit that is beyond the analytical comprehension of science.

    Plant Constituents

    Physiologically active plant constituents are usually classified by their chemical structure rather than
    specific actions. The list here will assumes a certain degree of chemical knowledge:

     Acids
     Alcohols
     Carbohydrates
     Phenols & phenolic glycosides
     Tannins
     Coumarins & their glycosides
     Anthraquinones & their glycosides
     Flavones & Flavonoid glycosides
     Volatile Oils
     Saponins
     Cardioactive glycosides
     Cyanogenic glycosides
     “Bitter Principles”
     Alkaloids

    Recommended Resources:

     Lisa Ganora, Herbal Constituents


     Dr. Andrew Pengelly, The Constituents of Medicinal Plants
     Dr. Kerry Bone, The Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy

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