Medicines to make you well
If you get sick, a plant may help you get well. Many medicines that
doctors give sick people are made from plants.
People with heart trouble use a medicine made from this plant.
One of the best medicines is penicillin. It has cured so many kinds of
sickness that it has been called a wonder drug.
Penicillin comes from plants called molds that grow on bread and fruit.
Different kinds of plants are used to make cough syrups, tonics, and
many other medicines that the doctor may give you to take when you don’t
feel well.
There is one very strange thing about the plants that medicines come
from. Most of these plants are poisonous. If you ate one of them you
would probably become very sick. You might even die. But when these
plants are used in medicines, they help you get well.
foxglove
penicillium mold
The medicine called penicillin is made from a mold such as this.
