ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 PHARMACOGNOSY – THE SCIENCE OF NATURAL SOURCE MEDICINES The study of medicinal plants and their properties is called pharmacognosy. This science has led to the development of many drugs in use today including aspirin (the basic salicylate structure was discovered from the white willow while aspirin was synthesized from meadowsweet), opioids (originally from opium poppies), the birth control pill (synthesized from steroid structures found in a wild Mexican yam), and chemotherapeutic agents like vincristine and vinblastine (from Madagascar periwinkle) or taxol (from the Pacific yew tree).
