What is "officinal"

Officinal \Of*fic"i*nal\, a. [F., fr. L. officina a workshop, contr. fr. opificina, fr. opifex a workman; opus work + facere to make or do.]

1. Used in a shop, or belonging to it. [Obs. or R.]
   --Johnson.

2. (Pharm.) Kept in stock by apothecaries; -- said of such drugs and medicines as may be obtained without special preparation or compounding; not magistral.

   Note: This term is often interchanged with official, but in strict use officinal drugs are not necessarily official. See Official, a.,

"kept in stock by a druggist," c.1720, from French officinal, from Medieval Latin officinalis, literally "of or belonging in an officina," a storeroom (of a monastery) for medicines and necessaries, in classical Latin "workshop, manufactory, laboratory," contraction of *opificina, from opifex (genitive opificis) "worker, workman, maker, doer" (from opus "work;" see opus) + -fex, -ficis "one who does," from facere "do, perform" (see factitious). Related: Officinally.

a. 1 medicinal. 2 (context obsolete rare English) Used in a shop, or belonging to it. 3 (context obsolete pharmaceutical English) Kept in stock by apothecary; said of such drugs and medicines as may be obtained without special preparation or compounding; not magistral.

Officinal is a term applied in medicine to drugs, plants and herbs, which are sold in a chemist or druggist shop, and to medical preparations of such drugs, et cetera, as are made in accordance with the prescriptions authorized by a pharmacopoeia. Not to be confused 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.

In botanical nomenclature, the specific epithet officinalis derives from a plant's historical use in pharmacology.