Intro to Pcog

• The history of Pharmacognosy can be traced back to 780 AD when Pedanios Dioscorides wrote De materia medica libre cinque, a five-volume work on 600 plants.
• Galen, in Rome, described the method of preparing formulas containing plant and animal drugs and originated the term "Galenical pharmacy".
• In the 19th century, material medica underwent divisions into pharmacology, the actions of drugs, and pharmacognosy, all aspects of drugs with lesser emphasis on action.
• The term "pharmacognosy" was introduced by C.A Seydler, a medical student in Halle/Saale, Germany, who used the title Anaclectica pharmacognosthica for his dissertation in 1815.
• Fluckiger defines Pharmacognosy as the simultaneous application of various scientific disciplines with the object of acquiring knowledge of drugs.
• Pharmacognosy is an applied science that deals with the biologic, biochemical and economic features of natural drugs and their constituents that originate in the plant and animal kingdom.
• Lerbuch der Materia medica, published in Vienna in 1811 by J.A Schmidt, is considered the first work on pharmacognosy.
• Herbs and Health Foods are natural origin; many are without therapeutic effect, some are toxic.
• Tannins are a group of complex phenolic compounds capable of combining with proteins.
• Vitamins & Vitamin Containing Drugs are necessary for normal growth & functions of animals.
• Resins And Resin Combinations comprise resins, oleoresins, oleo-gum-resin & balsams.
• These active constituents and the drugs containing them are: Carbohydrates and Related Compounds, composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
• Biologics are composed of antigenic matter or antibody; capable of developing state of immunity.
• Alkaloids are nitrogenous crystalline or oily compounds, usually basic in character.
• Lipids are compounds comprising fixed, fats and waxes.
• Volatile Oils are essential oils that represent odoriferous principles of plants.
• Glycosides yield one or more sugars on hydrolysis.
• Drug biosynthesis or biogenesis is the study of the biochemical pathways leading to the formation of secondary constituents used as drugs, for example, that amino acids and their simple derivatives served as precursors of structurally complex alkaloids.
• The three basic disciplines devoted to drugs are pharmacology, which deals with drug actions and effects, pharmacognosy, which includes all information on medicines from natural sources, and medicinal chemistry, the science of synthetic drugs.
• Inert constituents have no definite pharmacologic activity.
• Three principal factors that influence the secondary constituents of drug plants are heredity (genetic composition), ontogeny (stage of development), and environment.
• Taxonomy is the study of the natural relationship or phylogeny among plants and animals.
• Secondary plant substances are extracted, crystallized and purified where the presence of inert matter in active constituents which may modify or prevent absorbability or potency of the active constituents.
• Pharmaceutically active compounds cause chemical changes in the medicinal preparation.
• Morphology refers to the classification of plants and animals.
• Pharmacologic or Therapeutic refers to medicinal and their therapeutic effects.
• Active Constituents are compounds that are responsible for the therapeutic effect.
• Physical properties such as solubility, specific gravity, optical rotation, congealing point, refractive index, melting point, and water content are extensively applied to the active principle of drugs.
• Pharmacologically active compounds are responsible for the therapeutic activity.
• Chemical constituent refers to chemical compounds found in plants and animals.
• Saponification number, iodine number, and acid value are important tests for fixed oil.
• Chemical tests are used to determine the active constituents of many natural drugs.
• Natural substances refer to those substances found in nature that comprise whole plants and anatomic parts thereof that have not had changes made in their molecular structure as found in nature.
• Derivatives or extractives refer to single substances or mixtures of substances which are considered as the chief constituents obtained by the process of extraction.
• Chemical assay is the process of purification of the chief principle from plants of origin.
• Preparation of drugs for the commercial market involves collection, harvesting, drying, and packaging.
• Procaine and similar local anesthetics, such as cocaine, are examples of natural products that contain compounds with little or no activity which can be modified by chemical or biological methods to produce potent drugs.
• Naturalized plants are those growing in a foreign land or in a locality other than their native homes.
• Garbling is the final stage in the preparation of crude drugs; removal of extraneous matter such as other parts of the plant, dirt and added adulterants.
• Evaluation of drugs is done to identify and to determine the quality and purity of drugs.