HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PHARMACOGNOSY

Pharmacognosy is regarded as the mother of all science.

History of pharmacognosy represents the history of pharmacy & medicine.

Pharmacognosy had its origin in the health-related activities of the most

primitive human race of the remote past.

The early man sought to alleviate his sufferings of illness & injuries by
using plants.

They acquired knowledge of medicinal properties of plants in the following

way:

a) By guesswork or trial & error

b) While searching for food
c) By superficial resemblance between the plant parts & the
affected organs, that is, by examining the “Signature of
Nature”
d) By observing other animals instinctive discrimination
between toxic & palatable plants
e) By accidental discovery
By a combination of all these means the ancient people acquired a
considerable volume of knowledge about drugs.

In course of time a group of people emerged in each community who

acquired expertise in collecting, testing & using medicinal plants for treating
diseases. These people later became known as `Medicine Men'.

The Medicine Men monopolized the knowledge of drugs and hide that
knowledge in some mysterious incantations. They transferred this secret
knowledge only to their trusted predecessors of the successive generations, who
gradually increased the volume of knowledge about drugs and their uses.

Initially the transfer of the acquired knowledge from generation to

generation used to be done verbally by the use of signs & symbols. As civilization
progressed, transfer and recording of the knowledge were done in writing.

According to recorded history:

The history of herbal medicine is as old as human

civilization. In the past, almost all medicines used were from the plants. Many
ancient documents revealed that plants were used medicinally in China, India,
Egypt and Greece long before the beginning of Christian era. In China,
medicinal plants had been in use since 5000BC. The oldest known herbal
document ‘Pentaso’ written by Shen nung came out around 3000BC. During
the same period, meticulous efforts had been progressing in India also, to
examine and classify herbs. Charaka made 50 groups of 10 herbs each of which
was meant for a particular illness. Sushrutha arranged 760 herbs in 7 groups
based on their common properties. Thus, the well known treatises in Ayurveda,
‘ Charaka Samhita’ and ‘ Sushruta samhita’ were formed. The earliest plant
medicines used in the Ayurvedic system originated in india were described
around 1200 BC ago with a list of 127 plants.

Ebers Papurus, written in 1550 BC, recorded that Egyptians possessed a good
knowledge of human anatomy & medicinal uses of hundreds of plants which
made them capable of embalming dead bodies for making mummies.

Many of the present day drugs, such as Henbane, Mandrake, opium,

Pomegranate, Caster oil, Aloe, Onion, many fixed oils & fats, were in common
use in Egypt about 4500 years ago.

Babylonians (about 3000 BC) had knowledge of large number of

medicinal plants and their properties.Some of the plants used are still used
almost in the same way and for the same purposes.

The Greek civilization witnessed a highly developed system

of medicine which used medicinal plants and minerals. Arab Muslims further
enriched this system and developed the Greco-Arabic or Unani system, which
formed the basis of modern Allopathic system of medicine.

In the 19 th century, the term ‘materia medica’ was

used for the subject pharmacognosy. Seydler, a German scientist coined the
term ‘pharmacognosy’ in 1815 in the title of his work ‘Analecta
pharmacognostica’. The term ‘pharmacognosy’ is derived from two Greek
words – ‘Pharmakon’ which means ‘drug’ and ‘Gignosco’ which means ‘ to
aquire knowledge of’.

The progress achieved during 19 th century in the field

of botanical sciences had a direct influence in Pharmacognosy. The binomial
classification of plants, introduced by Swede in the 18th century was further
developed by Bentham or Hooker. Griger Mendel’s important observations
on plant hybrids came in 1865. Soon, microscope was introduced as an
simportant analytical tool, techniques like clearing, staining, mounting etc came
in to use. Thus, anatomical atlas of crude drugs was published in 1865.

In the 20 th century, tremendous work has been done in

this field and phytochemistry as a distinct branch in science was evolved.
Constituents isolated from the plants were not only used as such, but they were
also used for semisynthesis and also as model for the synthetic drugs.

The following people contributed significantly to the gradual

development of Pharmacognosy:
 Hippocrates (460-370 BC). He is regarded as the `Father of medicine' for
his contribution to human anatomy and physiology. He collected, identified and
used a large number of medicinal plants.

Aristotle (384-322 BC). A student of great philosopher Plato listed more

than 500 plants of medicinal importance with their description & uses.
Theophrastus (370-287 BC) collected,
identified a large number of medicinal plants and recorded their medicinal
properties.

Dioscorides (1st Century AD), a Greek Physician, published five volumes

of a book, entitled `De Materia Medica' in 78 AD, which described more than
600 medicinal plants with their collection, storage & uses.

Pliny de Elder (23-70 AD), a Greek botanist, collected and described a

large number of medicinal plants with their uses.

Galen (131-200 AD), a Greek pharmacist-physician, described methods of

preparing pharmaceutical formulations containing plant and animal drugs. These
methods & his other observations on medicinal plants have been recorded in as
many as 20 volumes of books. The present day Galenical preparations or
Galenicals are prepared according to those methods.

So long the same person, the apothecary (pharmacist-physician), used to

do all the works of collection, processing, preparation and dispensing of the
medicaments (the works of the pharmacist) and also diagnosing the disease and
prescribing the drug (the works of the physician).

With the increase of knowledge of drugs, the volume of work also

increased a lot and it become impossible for one person to manage them
properly.

Thus at this point pharmacy & medicine started developing along two separate
paths:

a) One group specialized in diagnosing the disease and prescribing the

drug and became known as the physicians or doctors;

b) The other group specialized in collecting, processing, preparing &

dispensing the drug and became known as the apothecaries or pharmacist.

In this way, Pharmacognosy progressed gradually and formed the basis and
beginning of both pharmacy & medicine.