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Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] life history of medicinal plants?
David, I wouldn’t necessarily associate a secondary bioactive compound with
one that can be considered medicinal for humans. Nicotine and urushiol are
among the many that can be produced in short order, so I would argue
http://www.piam.com/mms_garden/officinalis.html has a description of
the species epithets 'officinalis', 'officinale' and 'officinarum',
which were assigned (mostly by Linnaeus, I presume) to plants that
were used medicinally. Of the 62 species listed on that Web site, 3
are annual, one is
David,
I've been teaching Medical Botany for many years and I think you have
hit upon an intriguing question. However, as others have already
pointed out, it is much more complex than perhaps first thought. First,
I can also see the reasoning for thinking that perennial plants may be
more
I'm wondering whether it's possible to generalize about the life
histories of medicinal plants. My guess is that annual plants in
general don't invest much in secondary plant compounds, so that most
medicinal plants would be perennial (herbs or shrubs). Do you know
of any annuals that are
For whatever Wickipedia is worth, this article lists some 200 plants used in
traditional and modern medicine. Most listed are perennial, but a few are
annual or biennial. Among the annuals is the opium poppy.
David Inouye ino...@umd.edu wrote:
I'm wondering whether it's possible to
David, I wouldn’t necessarily associate a secondary bioactive compound with
one that can be considered medicinal for humans. Nicotine and urushiol are
among the many that can be produced in short order, so I would argue that a
plant’s secondary compounds can be produced rapidly and not
Some of these are considered medicinal, but I don't know if they REALLY
qualify as sources of anything or not.
BTW, might try a seed catalog! ;)
Poppies produce opium.
Borango officinalis
Arctium lappa
Calendula officinalis
Matricaria recutita
Stellaria media
Coriandrum sativum
Hibiscus
prussic acid is widely produced when under stress by annual grasses like
sudan grass, sorghrum and others.
However, I began to realize this question was further complicated by issues
with plants that are perennial in some parts of their range but annual in
others. Then there are those plants that
I would attempt to obtain the complete list of plants from the University
of Michigan ethnobotanical database, determine how many are not used for
fibers or other non medicinal purposes, and then determine how many are
annual. Nightshades, Milkweeds, Foxglove and Castor beans are all used
