Let’s start at the begiining. What is bearberry? A plant. What is arbutin? A chemical. Now that we sorted that out, let’s look at the details. Figure. Thomé Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 1885. This is a plant that has been used in folk medicine to alleviate an assortment of ailments. It contains many phytochemicals, some of them good for you, others not so much.  Among those chemicals is arbutin. Arbutin is a derivative of hydroquine present in many plants. Other names are arbutoside and hydroquinone β-D-glucopyranoside. This means that there is a glucose attached to the hydroquinone part of the molecule in a “beta” link. The glucose … Continue reading Plants and the chemicals they make. Is alpha arbutin extracted from bearberry?