What Does "Officinal" Mean?

Officinal is a term meaning that a plant or herb has recognized medical uses, and may be obtained through a pharmacist or druggist. Historically, an officinal was any preparation a pharmacist was likely to keep in stock and sell over the counter. The meaning of the term has shifted slightly today. Many pharmacies do not stock herbal preparations, and the availability of various plant and herb products can vary depending on the region and the type of pharmacy. It is important to avoid confusing this word with “official.”

This term has its origins in the Latin for “workshop,” referring to the fact that pharmacists once kept workshops on site to process and compound various products. A plant with officinal properties is one with pharmaceutical uses, although these uses may not be universally recognized. Some medicinal herbs and plants have been subject to extensive testing and see widespread use, while others are only seen in alternative medicine.

An officinal can help with the treatment, management, or cure of disease, ranging from poppies with opioid properties to manage pain, to St. John's wort for depression. Historically, listings of common plants and preparations stocked by most pharmacies were sometimes known as officinals. This word can also be seen in botanical nomenclature, where the suffix officinalis appears in the specific epithets of plants and other organisms known to have therapeutic properties. It is possible for more than one member of a genus to be used medically, in which case the most well known or useful typically carries this suffix

Fungi, herbs, and other naturally occurring organisms can all contain pharmaceutically useful compounds. In some cases, processing is necessary to purify and extract the compound while in others, it is possible to consume the product directly for the benefits. Patients can chew ginseng root for nausea, for example, or may add ginger to teas to settle the stomach. Herbalists and other medical practitioners who work with natural pharmaceuticals may actively compound them, or just write prescriptions for the patients.

Officinal plants and other organisms are sometimes cultivated for quality control in pharmaceutical production, as well for as further study. Synthetic versions of natural compounds are often preferred for safety and reliability; it is much easier to dose patients with synthetics, for example, because it is easy to measure the dosage. It may be necessary to cultivate an organism to learn more about its properties for the purpose of developing a synthetic version. Experimental facilities may also work on breeding more potent varieties or studying the impacts of different cultivation techniques and environments on potency.