Orientation to Pharmacy

• The pharmacist is the only healthcare professional who can dispense prescription medications.
• Pharmacists are responsible for ensuring that patients receive safe, effective medication therapy by providing counseling on drug use, monitoring adherence, and resolving problems related to drug therapy.
• pharmakon is Greek for Drug or medicine.
• A pharmacy is a place where medicines are sold and dispensed to the public.
• Pharmacy is the art of preparing and dispensing medicines.
• Pharmacy is a field of health science that focuses on the safe and effect use of medications
• Toxicology is the study of poisons and their antidotes.
• Pharmacy is a profession. A profession is an occupation characterized by:

  1. Extensive training (specialized knowledge).
  2. Process of certification and licensing.
  3. Professional organizations and behavior and ethical code.
• Pharmacology is the study of the actions and uses of drugs.
• Pharmacognosy is the study of drugs of natural origin.
• Pharmaceutical chemistry deals with analysis and synthesis of drugs.
• Pharmaceutics is the science of converting active ingredients into usable pharmaceutical products.
• Rx is the abbreviation for a Latin word "recipere" which means "to take."
• Bowl of Hygieia - Internationally recognized symbol of pharmacy. Hygieia was the Greek goddess of Good Health and daughter of Aesculapius(a Greek God of medicine)
• A pharmacist is a healthcare professional who practices medicine.
• The Clinical pharmacist is patient inclined and the Hospital pharmacist is drug inclined.
•  Clinical pharmacists provide direct patient care that optimizes the use of medication and promotes health, wellness, and disease prevention whiles Hospital pharmacists may be inpatient or outpatient pharmacists, and may also specialize in one or other area of pharmacotherapy.
• Types of Community pharmacists

  1. Wholesale
  2. Retail
• Evolution of Medicine

  1. 5000 BC "Primitive Medicine."(witchcraft)
  2. 2700 BC Chinese Medicine.
  3. 2000 BC Egyptial medicine (herbs and drugs).
  4. 1000 BC Indian Medicine (Ayurveda)
  5. 450 BC Greek Medicine (Hygiene)
  6. 200 AD Roman Medicine (Anatomy and Surgery)
  7. 500-1500 AD Europe (Middle and Dark Ages)
  8. 1600-1900 AD "Scientific" Medicine (Infection)
  9. 1900 AD Present Modern Medicine
• Preparation of medicines was done by special assistants called APOTHECARIES. (Mesopotamia 3000-539 BC)
• Apothecary was the same as Perfumer who prepared volatile oils.
• Apothecaries worked in Druggist shops where they also traded in spices which were used as preservatives.
• Some of the products from that period are still used today. e.g. Honey, Peppermint, Liquorice, Thyme, Cannabis, Castor seed.
• Egypt(1900-1100 BC)
• The papyrus Ebers (named after George Ebers, a German Egyptologist who translated it) is a medico-pharmaceutical treatise which was produced in 1500 BC and contains 875 prescriptions and 700 drugs.
• Drugs in the Papyrus Ebers

  Source Examples

  1. Plant Spices, Castor seed, Acacia, Poppy
  2. Animal Milk, Livers, Waxes, Excreta
  3. Mineral Alum, Antimony, Salt, Copper, Sulphate
• Papyrus Ebers used excipients such as

  1. Milk, wine and beers for Liquids
  2. Honey for pills
  3. Waxes for ointments
• The preparer of Medicine (Pastopher) was a priest. (Egypt 1900-1100 BC)
• Greece (1250-285 BC)
• Early medical theories

  1. Anaximenes (6th century BC). All matter was made of 4 elements: air, water, fire, earth.
  2. Heraclitus of Ephesus (460 BC). All things were composed of two types of opposites: wet/dry and hot/cold. All things were therefore in a state of perpetual change.
  3. Empedocles of Sicily (490-430). Further developed the concept of the 4 elements (air, water, earth, fire). This was established in medicine for the next 2000 years.
  4. Democritus (460- 370 BC). Nothing is created out of nothing, a primitive Atomic Theory.
• Sources of knowledge and practice in Greek medicine

  1. Temple practice of Asclepius (Healing by the gods)
  2. Physiological opinions of philosophers (The most revered Greek philosopher was Hippocrates)
  3. Practice of the superintendents of the Gymnasia.
• Hippocrates

  1. Father of Medicine (460-370 BC)
  2. Born in Kos, Greece
  3. A lot of Hippocratic knowledge was contained in the Hippocratean Corpus which was produced by a group of scholars in Alexandria.
• Hippocratic Medicine (HM)

  1. The theory of four liquid humours: Blood, Phlegm, Bile, black bile
  2. Disease occurred when one of these was in excess
  3. Purgatives, enemas, Laxative were used to expel the excess and therefore cleanse and purify the body.
  4. Purifying remedy was called Pharmakon.
  5. HM employed about 300-400 remedies
• Wealthy Romans adopted Greek medicine.
• Mithradates IV (Rome) studied effects of drugs on his prisoners.
• Krateus compiled the first known illustrated Herbal.
• Dioscorides (50-100 AD)

  1. He produced the Materia medica (a list of materials from animal, vegetable and mineral sources that have medicinal uses)
  2. An illustrated version of this was produced by a Byzantine copyist in 512 AD Codex Aniciae Julianae.
• Codex Anicae Julianae, referred to as Doctrine of signatures. For every ailment there was a specific plant remedy and there was a natural clue in its physical feature like shape or colour.
• Galen (129-199 AD)

  1. Best formations were cold creams and ointments which were referred to as Galenicals.
  2. Illness was judged to be the result of imbalance between different elements.
  3. Treatment was an attempt to restore the imbalance.
• Jabir Ibn Hayann: considered greatest chemist in Islam and his work was published in 10th century.