Medicine and materials
Many
medicinal and recreational drugs, like tetrahydrocannabinol, caffeine,
and nicotine come directly from the plant kingdom. Others are simple
derivatives of botanical natural products; for example, aspirin is based
on the pain killer salicylic acid which originally came from the bark
of willow trees. As well, the narcotic analgesics such as morphine are
derived from the opium poppy. There may be many novel cures for diseases
provided by plants, waiting to be discovered. Popular stimulants like
coffee, chocolate, tobacco, and tea also come from plants. Most
alcoholic beverages come from fermenting plants such as barley (beer),
rice (sake) and grapes (wine).
Hemp, cotton, wood, paper, linen, vegetable oils, some types of rope,
and rubber are examples of materials made from plants. Silk can only be
made by using the mulberry plant. Sugarcane, rapeseed, soy are some of
the plants with a highly fermentable sugar or oil content which have
recently been put to use as sources of biofuels, which are important
alternatives to fossil fuels (see biodiesel).
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