That a relative of Charles Stewart Parnell has developed a drug for the treatment of addiction to cocaine, amphetamine and nicotine is indicative of the gap between the generations.

While Parnell said: "No man has a right to say to his country - thus far shalt thou go and no further", his distant relative, Dr Francis Parnell, has turned the dictum to his own use and is expanding the field of medicine with a series of patented drugs derived from a north Californian plant.

His family has gone a long way since his great-great-great grandfather, Arthur, the brother of Charles's grandfather William, left Ireland for Newfoundland in the last century.

His distant relative has returned to the land of his ancestors to establish a distribution centre for his US-based pharmaceutical company in Dublin.

He set up Parnell Pharmaceuticals 12 years ago with Diana, his wife, after they patented a series of drugs based on the properties of a Californian plant, the yerba santa. "It has a natural mucus and lubricant substance that we isolated for treatment of membranes and tissues of the body as well as the skin."

The drugs can be used as an oral moisturiser for dry mouth which can result from radiation therapy, or after being anaesthetised or as a side effect from other drug treatments. The distribution centre will be based in Swords, north County Dublin, and will be carried out in partnership with Blackhall Pharmaceuticals, a division of United Drug. "We will look to them for sales and marketing support as well as warehousing and shipping."

Dr Parnell added that US sales had now reached $1 million (almost €952,000) for the products in the US. "All of our products have patent protection based on the technology we have developed."