Asterids

Spearmint

Spearmint (Mentha spicata), also called garden mint, is a strongly aromatic perennial herb grown worldwide as a culinary herb and source of carvone-rich essential oil.

Spermacoce alata Aubl. (syn. Borreria alata, S. latifolia), broadleaf buttonweed, a Rubiaceae herb native from Colombia to northern South America and W. Brazil, naturalized weed and medicinal plant in Asia, Africa, and Oceania.

Spikenard

Spikenard (Nardostachys jatamansi, jatamansi, Sumbul-ut-Tib) is a critically endangered Himalayan aromatic herb, CITES Appendix II listed, used in Ayurveda and Unani medicine, with Nepal supplying most global rhizome trade.

Stachys

Stachys (woundwort) is a large cosmopolitan genus of Lamiaceae herbs, about 300-450 species centered in the Mediterranean and Turkey, with two-lipped flowers, debated Betonica taxonomy, and medicinal herbal-tea uses.

Stevia

Stevia: Stevia rebaudiana, the Paraguayan sweet-leaf shrub, its steviol glycoside sweeteners (200-300x sucrose), production, JECFA/EU/FDA regulation, ADI 4 mg/kg bw, and health evidence.

Stevia rebaudiana

Stevia rebaudiana (caa-ehe) is a Paraguayan and Brazilian Asteraceae herb whose leaves contain steviol glycosides such as stevioside and rebaudioside A, sweeteners 40–300 times sweeter than sucrose with an ADI of 4 mg/kg bw/day.

Streptocarpus

Streptocarpus (Cape primrose), genus of ~160 African and Madagascan herbs in Gesneriaceae, type species S. rexii (1828); since 2015 includes African violets (Saintpaulia), with twisted capsules and major horticultural importance.

Streptocarpus ionanthus

Streptocarpus ionanthus, the African violet (formerly Saintpaulia ionantha), is a lithophytic Gesneriaceae herb native to Kenya and Tanzania, divided into nine subspecies, widely cultivated as an ornamental houseplant.

Striga hermonthica

Striga hermonthica (purple witchweed), Orobanchaceae hemiparasitic annual weed native to Africa, parasitizes maize, sorghum, and millets via strigolactone-triggered germination and haustoria, causing 30–80% cereal yield losses across sub-Saharan Africa.

Strophanthus kombe

Strophanthus kombe (kombe arrow poison) is an East and southern African Apocynaceae liana whose glycoside-rich seeds served as arrow poison and yielded the heart medicine strophanthin-K, distinct from S. gratus (ouabain).

Strychnos nux-vomica

Strychnos nux-vomica (maqianzi, Kupilu, Tumdgha), the strychnine tree of Loganiaceae, is a tropical Asian tree whose seeds yield strychnine and brucine, used in Ayurvedic, Chinese and Tibetan medicine after detoxification processing.

Sunflower oil

Sunflower oil, also called sunflower seed oil, is the vegetable oil pressed from sunflower seeds, making up about 9 percent of global vegetable oil production.

Swertia

Swertia L. is a genus of about 170 gentian-family herbs native from subarctic Northern Hemisphere to Old World tropical mountains, with xanthone- and iridoid-rich species such as S. chirayita used in Asian traditional medicine.

Symphoricarpos

Symphoricarpos (snowberry), Caprifoliaceae genus of about 15 deciduous shrub species native to North America and central-southern China, grown for white to purplish drupes; type S. orbiculatus, published by Duhamel 1755.

Symphoricarpos albus

Symphoricarpos albus (L.) S.F.Blake, the common snowberry, is a suckering deciduous shrub in the honeysuckle family, native across North America to Baja California, with pink flowers and waxy white berries lasting into winter.

Symphytum

Symphytum (comfrey), Boraginaceae genus of about 34-40 perennial herbs native to Europe and W. Asia; knitbone topical remedy for sprains and bruises, but contains hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids limiting use.

Symplocaceae

Symplocaceae (sweetleaf family), Ericales, two genera Cordyloblaste and Symplocos, c. 300–320 woody species disjunct between eastern Asia and the Americas; Eurasian origin c. 52 Ma, revised 2008 classification.

Symplocos

Symplocos (sweetleaf) is a genus of about 300-411 accepted species of trees and shrubs in Symplocaceae, Ericales, native from Asia to the Pacific and the Americas, absent from Africa; leaves dry yellow from aluminium accumulation, fruits often blue.

Synsepalum dulcificum

Synsepalum dulcificum, the miracle fruit or miracle berry (神秘果), a West African Sapotaceae shrub whose glycoprotein miraculin binds hT1R2-hT1R3 and makes sour foods taste sweet for 1-2 hours; EU-authorized novel food at 0.7 g/day.

Syringa vulgaris

Syringa vulgaris, the common lilac (Oleaceae), is a deciduous shrub native to the Balkan mountains, with fragrant spring panicles, over 1,600 cultivars, and a breeding history from Lemoine's 1870s French hybrids onward.

Tabebuia

Tabebuia Gomes ex DC. is a genus of 74 accepted Bignoniaceae trees native from Mexico to tropical America; once broadly circumscribed, it was split in 2007 into Tabebuia, Handroanthus, and Roseodendron.

Tabernaemontana divaricata

Tabernaemontana divaricata, crepe jasmine or pinwheel flower, an Apocynaceae shrub native from the Himalayas to Indo-China, cultivated for fragrant pinwheel flowers, containing 66 reported alkaloids, IUCN least concern.

Tabernanthe iboga

Tabernanthe iboga (iboga) is a Central African Apocynaceae shrub, Bwiti sacrament in Gabon, source of ibogaine (~0.3% of root bark), IUCN Least Concern but threatened by overharvesting; Gabon banned wild export in 2019.

Tagetes

Tagetes, the marigold genus of Asteraceae, about 50 aromatic herb species native to subtropical America; French and African marigolds are Mexican in origin and roots contain nematicidal thiophenes.

Tagetes erecta

Tagetes erecta (cempasúchil, African marigold) is a Mexican annual Asteraceae, the Day of the Dead flower and the world's main lutein source, with dried flowers containing 0.1–0.2% carotenoids, 80% lutein diesters.

Tanacetum parthenium

Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium, formerly Chrysanthemum parthenium) is an aromatic Asteraceae herb native from southeast Europe to the western Himalaya, traditionally used against fever and migraine; parthenolide is its key constituent, with mixed clinical evidence for migraine prevention.

Tansy

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), also common tansy or bitter buttons, is a thujone-containing Asteraceae perennial herb native to temperate Eurasia, historically a medicinal herb, introduced to North America by 1631 and now an invasive weed with insecticidal and metal-bioindicator uses.

Taraxacum

Taraxacum (dandelion), Asteraceae genus of latex-bearing rosette herbs with beaked, wind-dispersed achenes; 50-250 sexual species plus up to 2,500 apomictic triploid microspecies; diploids sexual, polyploids apomictic; used as food, medicine, and rubber source.

Taraxacum officinale

Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion), Asteraceae perennial native to Europe to Siberia and NW Africa; apomictic triploid microspecies complex, wind-dispersed seeds, widespread invasive lawn weed, edible and medicinal herb.