officinal officinal 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 related to 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. whereas official descends from officium, meaning office, as in duty or position. lungwort (pulmonaria officinalis) - the plant's botanical name suggests its pharmaceutical use in botanical nomenclature, the specific epithet officinalis derives from a plant's historical use in pharmacology.