{{Short description|Drugs and plants sold in a pharmacy}} [[Image:Pulmonaria officinalis 800.jpg|thumb|Lungwort (''Pulmonaria officinalis'') - the plant's botanical name suggests its pharmaceutical use]]
'''Officinal''' drugs, plants and herbs are those which are sold in a chemist or druggist shop. Officinal medical preparations of such drugs are made in accordance with the prescriptions authorized by a pharmacopoeia. ''Officinal'' is not to be mixed with the word ''official''. The classical Latin ''officina'' meant a workshop, manufactory, laboratory, and in medieval Latin was applied to a general storeroom. It thus became applied to a shop where goods were sold rather than a place where things were made.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=22}} Whereas official descends from officium, meaning office, as in duty or position.
In botanical nomenclature, the specific epithet ''officinalis'' derives from a plant's historical use in pharmacology.
==See also== *Herbalism *Officinalis
==References== {{Reflist}}
;Attribution *{{1911|wstitle=Officinal |volume=20 |page=22}}
Category:Herbalism Category:Pharmacopoeias