Pharmacognosy
Pharmacognosy is the study of medicines derived from natural sources. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties of drugs, drug substances or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well as the search for new drugs from natural sources. It is also defined as the study of crude drugs.
Dioscorides’ Materia Medica, c. 1334 copy in Arabic, describes medicinal features of various plants.
The word "pharmacognosy" is derived from the
Greek words
φάρμακον pharmakon (
drug), and γνῶσις
gnosis (
knowledge).
The term "pharmacognosy" was used for the first time by the Austrian
physician Schmidt in 1811 and 1815 by Crr. Anotheus Seydler in a work
titled
Analecta Pharmacognostica.
Originally—during the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century—"pharmacognosy" was used to define the branch of
medicine or commodity sciences (
Warenkunde in German) which deals with
drugs in their crude, or unprepared, form.
Crude drugs
are the dried, unprepared material of plant, animal or mineral origin,
used for medicine. The study of these materials under the name
pharmakognosie was first developed in German-speaking areas of Europe, while other language areas often used the older term
materia medica taken from the works of
Galen and
Dioscorides. In German the term
drogenkunde ("science of crude drugs") is also used synonymously.
As late as the beginning of the 20th century, the subject had
developed mainly on the botanical side, being particularly concerned
with the description and identification of drugs both in their whole
state and in powder form. Such branches of pharmacognosy are still of
fundamental importance, particularly for pharmacopoeial identification
and quality control purposes, but rapid development in other areas has
enormously expanded the subject.
Although most pharmacognostic studies focus on plants and medicines
derived from plants, other types of organisms are also regarded as
pharmacognostically interesting, in particular, various types of
microbes (bacteria, fungi, etc.), and, recently, various marine
organisms.
In addition to the previously mentioned definition, the
American Society of Pharmacognosy
also defines pharmacognosy as "the study of natural product molecules
(typically secondary metabolites) that are useful for their medicinal,
ecological, gustatory, or other functional properties."
[2] Other definitions are more encompassing, drawing on a broad spectrum of biological subjects, including
botany,
ethnobotany,
marine biology,
microbiology,
herbal medicine,
chemistry,
biotechnology,
phytochemistry,
pharmacology,
pharmaceutics, clinical
pharmacy and
pharmacy practice.
The contemporary study of pharmacognosy can be divided into the fields of
- medical ethnobotany: the study of the traditional use of plants for medicinal purposes;
- ethnopharmacology: the study of the pharmacological qualities of traditional medicinal substances;
- the study of phytotherapy (the medicinal use of plant extracts); and
- phytochemistry, the study of chemicals derived from plants (including the identification of new drug candidates derived from plant sources).
- zoopharmacognosy, the process by which animals self-medicate, by selecting and using plants, soils, and insects to treat and prevent disease.
- marine pharmacognosy, the study of chemicals derived from marine organisms.
At the 9th congress of Italian society of pharmacognosy it was stated
that current return of phyto-therapy was clearly reflected by the
increased market of such products. In 1998 the latest figures available
for Europe, the total OTC market for herbal medicinal products reached a
figure of $6 billion, with consumption for Germany of $2.5 billion,
France $1.6 billion and Italy $600 million. In the US, where the use of
herbal products has never been as prevalent as in continental Europe,
the market for all herb sales reached a peak in 1998 of $700 billion.
This welcomed the scientific investigation of a rigorous nature.
The plant kingdom still holds many species of plants containing
substances of medicinal value which have yet to be discovered. Large
numbers of plants are constantly being screened for their possible
pharmacological value.
