Pharmaceuticals

Some plant products such as alcohol (produced
by fermentation of sugar), tobacco, and drugs like heroin from the
poppy, cocaine from coca and marijuana from the hemp plant have
often been put to less than desirable uses by people. Many other drugs
derived from plants are widely used in medicine. A good example is
digitalis from the foxglove plant, often prescribed for patients with
heart ailments. Plants with medicinal properties have been con­sumed
by people for centuries.
Plants provide beauty, shade from summer sun, wind protection,
animal habitat and lovely fragrance. Stop and look around you at
all the things that make up your everyday world. How many have
been derived from plants or plant products? How desirable would
the world be without trees, shrubs, flowers, and grass that color and
soften our world and ease the tensions of everyday life? Plants are
worth knowing and appreciating for they are indispensable to us in
every way. Although people have reached the moon, they have not
yet found a substitute for a living plant.