Phyto

• Pharmacognosy


  A scientific field that focuses on biogenic or naturally-derived medicines and toxins
• Pharmacognosy encompasses all medicinal plants, including those that produce complex mixtures and are used in the form of crude herbs (comminuted herbal substance) or extracts (phytotherapy)
• Pharmacognosy includes pure compounds like morphine and foods that provide additional health benefits but only in the context of preventive effects (nutraceuticals)
• Pharmacognosy (in a broad sense)

  Embraces knowledge of history, distribution, cultivation, collection, selection, preparation, commerce, identification, evaluation, preservation and use of drugs and economic substances that affect the health of man and other animals
• Pharmacognosy (in a restricted sense)


  Implies a particular knowledge of identification and evaluation of drugs
• Material (subject matter) of pharmacognosy

  • Drugs
  • Economic substances
• Drugs


  Those originate in the plant and animal kingdoms. They are either crude drugs or their natural derivatives (or extractives)
• Crude drugs


  • Digitalis leaf
  • Rauwolfia root
  • Thyroid gland
• Natural derivatives (extractives)


  • Isolated cardiac glycosides (e.g. Digitoxin)
  • Purified alkaloids (e.g. Resepine)
  • Extracted hormones (e.g. Thyroxine)

  
• Both crude drug and extractives (derivatives) can be used as therapeutic agents due to their content of chief constituent
• Chief constituent


  Extractive (or derivative) obtained from the crude drug (usually by extraction) that consists of single or mixture of substances and employed in a more specific manner
• Extraction


  1. Crude Drug

  2. Extractive (wanted substance) + Marc. (unwanted substance)

  3. Solvent
• Natural derivatives


  Can also be obtained via synthetic means
• Natural versus Synthetic substances

  • Camphor
  • Epinephrine
  • Caffeine
  • Codeine
  • Ephedrine
  • Menthol
  • Penicillins

  
• Natural camphor is optically active and dextrorotatory to the polarized light, while synthetic and semisynthetic camphor is a racemic mixture

  
• Economic substances


  A variety of commercial and medicinal products often requiring a complicated method of preparation
• Economic substances


  • Allergens
  • Allergenic extracts
  • Antibiotics
  • Flavoring agents
  • Condiments
• Camphor oil


  The essential oil extracted from the wood of the Cinnamomum camphora tree, which belongs to the Lauraceae family. It is highly concentrated with camphor, which possesses antiseptic properties and is frequently used in soap-making
• Uses of camphor oil

  Used in combination with essential oil-based medications as a fragrant stimulant and decongestant due to its secretolytic and decongestant effects
• Adrenaline (epinephrine)


  A hormone and neurotransmitter that is naturally produced by the adrenal glands. Used for the treatment of hypersensitivity reactions, restoring cardiac rhythm during cardiac arrest, relieving bronchial asthmatic paroxysms, and treating mucosal congestion
• Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine


  Act as bronchodilators
• Ephedra sinica


  Family Ephedraceae, used as a source of ephedra alkaloids, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine
• Ephedrine


  Commonly used in the form of elixirs and nasal drops, acts as a heart rate accelerator and is used to treat some types of bradycardia. (-)-Ephedrine injections are used for severe asthma and in cases of life-threatening anaphylactic shock
• Pseudoephedrine


  Another isomer of ephedrine, utilized in cough preparations

  
• Crude drugs


  Vegetable or animal products (drugs) that consist of natural substances that have undergone only the processes of collection and drying
• Natural substances


  Substances found in nature and comprise whole plant and herb and anatomic parts thereof, whole animal and anatomic parts thereof, glands or other animal organs, extracts and secretions or other constituents thereof, and that have not had changes made in their molecular structure as found in nature
• Crude drugs


  Any product that has not been advanced in value or improved in condition by shredding, grinding, chipping, crushing, distilling, evaporating, extracting, artificial mixing with other substances, or by any other process or treatment beyond that which is essential for its proper packing and to the prevention of decay or deterioration pending manufacture
• Geographical source (habitat)


  The region in which the plant or animal producing the drug grows. Yield is generally higher in tropics and subtropics compared to arctic and subarctic regions
• Indigenous plants


  Plants growing in their native countries
• Naturalized plants


  Plants that grow in a foreign land (or a locality) other than their native homes
• How plants get naturalized

  • Introduced by the seeds of cultivated plants
  • Introduced by birds or ocean currents
  • Introduced by ballast of ships
• Wild vs cultivated plants

  Drugs can be obtained from either plants growing wild or those cultivated for the purpose of drug production
• Plants are usually cultivated in their non-native countries for economic and therapeutic (drug) interests
• Plants are cultivated in their native habitats because of dwindling natural supply and/or to improve the quality of the drug
• Thymus vulgaris (Thyme)


  Member of the mint family Lamiaceae. Thyme and its oil possess numerous medicinal properties such as being carminative, antiseptic, antitussive, expectorant, and spasmolytic. The active ingredients are thymol, carvacrol, and flavonoids
• Uses of thyme


  Popular remedy for respiratory complaints such as coughs, bronchitis, sinusitis, and whooping cough. Also used in mouthwashes and dentifrices due to its antiseptic and deodorant properties
• Thymol can be irritant and toxic in overdose, and therefore, thyme oil should be used with caution. The oil is safe for internal consumption in small doses of up to 0.3 ml, except for mouthwash, which should not be swallowed in significant amounts
• Opium


  The dried latex from unripe seedpods of Papaver somniferum (the opium poppy). It comprises over thirty different alkaloids, with the primary components being morphine, codeine, thebaine, papaverine, and noscapine
• Morphine


  An abundant opiate found in opium, used as an analgesic. It has served as a template for developing other pain-relieving drugs, including pethidine
• Codeine


  The phenolic methyl ether of morphine, commonly used as an over-the-counter pain reliever and cough suppressant, often combined with other analgesic agents