Ready-made custom PHP function for performing boring task – converting fancy spicy html to bare hardcore plain text. Use with care. Can cause brain damage.

function html2text($html)
{
    $tags = array (
    0 => '~<h[123][^>]+>~si',
    1 => '~<h[456][^>]+>~si',
    2 => '~<table[^>]+>~si',
    3 => '~<tr[^>]+>~si',
    4 => '~<li[^>]+>~si',
    5 => '~<br[^>]+>~si',
    6 => '~<p[^>]+>~si',
    7 => '~<div[^>]+>~si',
    );
    $html = preg_replace($tags,"\n",$html);
    $html = preg_replace('~</t(d|h)>\s*<t(d|h)[^>]+>~si',' - ',$html);
    $html = preg_replace('~<[^>]+>~s','',$html);
    // reducing spaces
    $html = preg_replace('~ +~s',' ',$html);
    $html = preg_replace('~^\s+~m','',$html);
    $html = preg_replace('~\s+$~m','',$html);
    // reducing newlines
    $html = preg_replace('~\n+~s',"\n",$html);
    return $html;
}

It is not a html 2 markdown converter.