history and development of pharmacognosy includes scope and organised and unorganised drugs

1. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
Unit 1
Introduction to pharmacognosy:
Definition:
 pharmacognosy may be defined as branch of bioscience which treat in details
medicinal and related products of crude or primary type obtained from plant
animal and mineral origins.
 In short its an objective study of crude of drugs from natural sources treated
scientifically and it encompasses the knowledge of the history, distribution,
cultivation, collection, processing from market and preservation the study of
the sensory physical chemical and structural characters and uses of crude
drugs.
 Pharmacognosy also includes study other materials used in pharmacy such as
suspending disintegrating and flavouring agent filtering aids etc.
 And substances like antibiotics, allergens, hallucinogenic and poisonous
plants immunizing agent’s pesticides raw materials for production of oral
contraceptive etc.
 Pharmacognosy is scientific and systematic study of crude drugs which
includes plants animal and minerals.
Scheme for pharmacognostic studies of a crude drug:
 A systematic study of a crude drug under pharmacognostic scheme involves
its description on the following lines:
1. Official title synonyms or vernacular names if any
2. Biological source and family
3. Geographical source or habitat
4. History and introduction of crude drug
5. Cultivation, collection, processing for market and commerce in crude drug
6. Morphological and macroscopically characters
7. Microscopic or histological studies
8. Chemical constituent and qualitative chemical tests

2. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
9. Pharmacological action, therapeutic and other pharmaceutical uses and
pharmaceutical preparation or formulation.
10.Commercial varieties, substitutes and adulterants
11.Quality control of crude drugs and phytopharmaceuticals derived from them.
History:
 In the nineteenth century the term (materia medica) was used for the subject
now known as pharmacognosy.
 While studying sarsaparilla it was seydler a germen scientist who coined the
term pharmacognosy. In 1815 in the title of the work “analecta
pharmacognostica”.
 Pharmacognosy is derived from two Greek words viz pharmakon (a drug) and
Gignosco (to acquire the knowledge of.
 The progress achieved in botanical studies during 19th
century had a direct
influence on pharmacognosy.
 Plant classified was further developed by Bentham and Hooker (1862-1863)
A.W Eichler (1883), Engler and prandtl (1887-1898).
 In 1865 G. Mendel’s important observation on plants hybrids were published
the introduction of microscope as an important analytical tool was a landmark
advancement in botanical research especially due to the development of
several techniques.
 Clearing mounting and staining of the preparations. The anatomical atlas crude
drugs were published by berg in 1865 later in century voehl tschirch and
others reported the anatomical characters of several powdered drugs and
food article was common.
 Anatomical atlas of powdered vegetable drugs was compiled in 1904 by
greenish and Collin.
Development:
 Pharmacognosy as an applied science has played a crucial role in in the
development of different disciplines of science.
 A pharmacognosist should possess a sound knowledge of the term used to
describes the vegetable and animal drugs as covered under botany and
zoology respectively.

3. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
 The knowledge of plant taxonomy plant breeding plant pathology and plant
genetics is helpful in the development of cultivation technology and plant
genetics is helpful in the development of cultivation technology for medicinal
and aromatic plants.
 Plants chemistry photochemistry has undergone significant development in
recent years as a distinct discipline.
 Its concerned with enormous variety of substance that are synthesised and
accumulated by plants and structural elucidation of the substances.
 The technology involving extraction, purification, and characterisation of
pharmaceutical from natural sources is significant contribution to the
advancement of natural and physical science.
 The knowledge of chemotaxonomy biogenetic pathways for formation of
medicinally active primary and secondary metabolites plant tissue culture and
other related fields is essential for complete understanding of pharmacognosy.
 The basic knowledge of biochemistry and chemical engineering is essential for
development of collection processing and storage technology of crude drugs.
Scope:
 The subject involves the fundamentals of Pharmacognosy like scope,
classification of crude drugs, their identification and evaluation, phytochemicals
present in them and their medicinal properties.
 It’s an important link between pharmacology and medicinal chemistry. As
result of rapid development of phytochemistry and pharmacological testing
methods in recent years’ new plants drugs are finding their way into medicine
as purified phytochemical rather than in the form traditional galenical
preparation.
 The knowledge of pharmacology is essential for understanding action of drug
on animal and human system.
 Pharmacognosy is the infrastructure on which depends evolution of novel
medicines as its seen the several crude drugs are utilized for preparation of
galenicals or sources of therapeutically significant substances that cannot be
synthesised economically.
 Further the crude drugs also provide essential intermediate for final synthesis of
action compound.
 Photopharmaceutical are synthetic drugs derived from phytochemicals have to
ultimately incorporated in suitable dosage form which involves the knowledge

4. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
of the dispensing preparative pharmacy pharmaceutical technology and
analysis.
 In the nutshell pharmacognosy is important bridge between pharmaceutical and
basic sciences.
 Pharmacognosy is a vital link between ayurvedic and allopathic systems of
medicine.
 It provides a system wherein the active principle of crude drugs derived from
natural origin can could be dispensed, formulated and manufactured in dosage
forms acceptable to allopathic system medicine.
 The three important necessities of life food clothing and shelter and host of
other useful products are supplied to him by plant kingdom.
 Nature has provided complete store house of the remedies to cure all ailments
of mankind.
 The knowledge of drugs has accumulated over thousands of years as a result of
man’s inquisitive nature so that today we possess many effective means of
ensuring health-care.
Organised and unorganised drugs:
Organised drugs:
 Organised drug obtained from direct plant or animals e.g. cell structure
 The term indicates there are organs od plants or animals and are made up of cell
or definite structure these drugs are named as flowers, seeds, fruits, insects etc.
they are solid in nature.
 Botanical or zoological terminology can be used to describe the drugs.
 Microscopic character is one of the important criteria for the identification of
organised drugs.
 E.g. digitalis, cinchona, clove, fennel, jalap, ephedra, cochineal.
Unorganised drugs:
 Underground part of the plant maybe either root or it may be an underground or
sub-aerial modification of stem.
 The functional performed by modified stem or root are basically different but
taking into consideration their occurrence as underground parts of the plants
irrespectively of their functions they can put together for sake of convenience
and study.

5. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
 Unorganised crude drug derived from parts of plant or animal by some process
of extraction and followed by purification, if necessary.
 E.g. oils, gums and balsams.
 Such terminology is inadequate to describe them but one has to look for their
physical characters such as solubility in various solvents, density, optical
rotation, refractive index, etc. whichever is applicable.
 Chemical testes and physical standards are confirmatory tests.
 E.g. aloe, agar, colophony, opium, castor oil, pees wax, pepsin, etc.
Unorganised crude drugs described by their physical
characters given below:
A. Dried juice:
 The juice is obtained from fleshy leaves (aloes) or from stems of the trees
(Kino).
 In all cases incisions are made to respective part of the plant and juice coming
out is collected and dried.
B. Dried lattices:
 The latex is product contained in special secretory tissue of certain plants its
usually white aqueous suspension wherein microscopically small particle of oils
globules is suspended.
 The natural suspension of natural consistency may contain protein, sugar,
minerals and alkaloidal salt is true solution whereas gums, starch and resin in
the suspended form.
 E.g. of commercial importance lattices are rubber and chicle gum, while
pharmaceutically important lattices are opium, papain, ficin and gutta percha.
C. Dried extracts:
 The extract convert from crude drug differ from galenical extracts.
 The extract pharmacognostic origin consists of extracting the parts of the plant
with water.
 Followed concentration with pharmaceutical preparation known as extracts are
prepared by using alcohol or hydro-alcoholic solutions and adjusting the
product to standard strength.
 Agar, sodium alginate and catechu are few extracts of plants origin while
gelatine is the extract from animal source.
D. Oleo-gum and resin:
 They are combination of volatile oils, gum, and resin.

6. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
 Sometimes they also contain others substances like enzymes E.g. myrrh and
asafoetida.
 The resins are found in different part of plants or animals:
1. External glands: Indian hemp (cannabis).
2. In the heart wood of certain wood: guaiacum and red sanders.
3. Internal glands of plants: male form.
4. Glands on surface of insects: shellac.
 Internal cavity producing resin in plant maybe unicellular as in ginger,
capsicum, jalap or multicellular as in clove.
 The cavity producing resins may be schizogenous or schizolysigenous
according to the mode of their origin.
 Resins are usually formed by plant as their normal physiological product while
in some cases they are pathological products and are produced when plants are
injured.
E.Oleo-resins:
 When the natural plant resin is accompanied with volatile oils in homogenous
form they are known as oleo-resins.
 Canada balsam and copaiba are suitable example of oleo-resins.
 One should compare these with prepared oleo-resins which are prepared by
producing drug contain volatile oil and resin together.
 E.g. capsicum, podophyllum and ginger oleo-resin.
F.Gums and mucilage:
 Gums are translucent and amorphous substances produced by plants.
 Gums are usually pathological products and are produced when the plant is
growing under unfavourable conditions or is injured.
 They are abnormal products of plant metabolism; they are produced by the
process known as Gummosis.
 Gums are soluble or partially soluble in water they are insoluble in alcohol and
in most of organic solvents.
 They form viscous adhesive solution with water other by swelling due to
absorption.
 Aqueous solution of gums is usually laevo rotatory.
 Gums are plant hydrocollidal and maybe anionic or non-ionic polysaccharide.
 On hydrolysis acidic hydrolysis or prolonged boiling with water.
 Gums yield sugar and uronic acid or aldobionic acid.
 Pharmaceutically important gums are gums acacia, tragacanth, gum karaya,
gum ghatti and guar gum.

7. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
Mucilage’s:
 Are also plants products similar to gums and are regarded to be the normal
product of plant metabolism.
 mucilage is produced inside the cell of the plant.
 Mucilage form slimy masses with water but not dissolve.
 Mucilage are ester of sulphuric acid wherein ester group is a polysaccharide
complex.
Various examples along with method formation of
mucilage are given below:
1. From cell wall of seed epidermis Isabgol
2. From endodermis Fenugreek
3. From leaf epidermis Senna
4. From bark Cinnamon ,slipper-elm
5. From special secretion cells Squill
6. From algae Agar , chondrus.
Difference between organised and unorganised drug:
Organised crude drug Unorganised crude drug
a) As the term indicate these organs of
plants or animals and are made up of
cells or definite structure these drugs
are named as flowers , seeds ,fruits
,insects etc.
a. These are derived from parts of plants
or animals by some process of
extraction and followed by
purification if necessary.
E.g. juice , extract , resin etc…
b) They are solid in nature b. These are solid, semisolid or liquid in
nature.
E.g. oils , gums and balsams.
c) Botanical or zoological terminology
can be used to describe these drugs.
c. Such terminology are inadequate to
describe them but one has to look for
their physical characters such as
solubility in various solvents, density ,
optical rotation, refractive index etc.
whichever is applicable.
d) Microscopic characters are one of the
important criteria for the identification
of organised drugs.
d. Chemical tests and physical standards
are confirmatory tests.
E.g. digitalis , cinchona ,clove ,fennel ,jalap ,
ephedra , cochineal etc.
E.g. Aloe , agar, colophony ,opium , castor oil
, bees-wax , pepsin etc…

8. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
Classification of drugs:
 The term crude drug generally applies to the products from plant and animals’
origin found in raw form.
 However, the term also applied to inclusion of pharmaceutical products from
minerals kingdom original form and not necessarily only of organic origin such
as kaolin, bentonite etc.
 The term crude drug referred in relation to the natural product that has been
advanced in value or improved in condition by any process or treatment beyond
that which is essential for its proper packing and preventation from
deterioration.
 Crude drug is further grouped as organised (cellular) or unorganised (acellular)
according to the whether they contain a regular organised cellular structure or
therefore made up of cells.
 Unorganised drugs are a diverse group of solid and liquid materials which not
consist of parts of plants and are obtained from natural sources by a variety of
extraction procedure.
 Inpharmacognosythecrudedrugsmaybeclassifiedaccording to:
I. Their alphabetical status.
II. The taxonomy of plants and animals from which they are derived.
III. Their morphology.
IV. The chemical nature of their active constituents.
V. Chemo taxonomical status.
VI. Their pharmacological action and therapeutic application.
 It should be noted that none of these systems give a total profile of natural drugs
and have their own limitation.
Alphabeticalclassification:
 The crude drugs are arranged according to their alphabetical order of their latein
and English name.
 Some of the pharmacopoeias and reference book which classify crude drugs
according to this term are as follow:
1) Indian pharmacopeia
2) British pharmacopeia
3) British herbal pharmacopeia
4) United states pharmacopeia and national formulary.
5) British pharmaceutical codex

9. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
6) European pharmacopeia (Latin title)
7) Encyclopaedia of common natural ingredients used in drug and cosmetics
E.g. acacia, benzoin, cinchona, dill, ergot, fennel, gentian, hyoscyamus,
ipecacuanha, jalap, kurchi, quorice, myrrh, nux-vomica, opium, podophyllum,
quassia, rauwolfia, senna, uncaria, gambier, asaka, wool fat, yellow bees-wax,
zedoary.
Morphological classification:
 The crude drug is grouped according to the part of the plant or animals
represented into organised and unorganised drugs.
 The organised drugs divided into parts of plant like leave, flowers, fruit, seeds,
woods, barks and subterranean parts like roots and rhizomes.
 The unorganised drug is derided latex, gums, extract, etc.
 Some of example of crude drugs under this type of classification are as follows:
 Seeds Nux-vomica ,strophanthus , isabgol , castor
 leaves Senna , digitalis, vasaka, eucalyptus
 barks Cinchona , kurchi , cinnamon , qualillaia
 woods Quassia, sandalwood, sassafras, red sanders
 roots Rauwolfia ,lpecacuanha , aconite , jalap.
 rhizomes Turmeric ,ginger , valerian, podophyllum
 followers Clove, pyrethrum , Artemisia , saffron
 fruits Colocynth , fennel , bael
 entire drugs Ephedra , ergot , cantharides , belladonna
 dried latices Opium , gutta-percha , papain.
 Resin and
resin
combinations
Balsam of tolu , myrrh , asafoetida , benzoin
 Dried juice Aloes , kino , red gum
 gums Acacia, tragacanth ,ghatti gum , guar gum.
 Dried
extracts
Gelatine ,catechu , agar , curare .
 This system of classification is more convenient for practical study especially
when the chemical nature of drugs is not clearly understood.
Taxonomical(biological)classification:

10. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
 The drugs are classified according to the plants or animals from which they are
obtained in phyla, orders, families, genera, species, subspecies etc.
 This method of classification is passed on the consideration of natural
relationship or phylogeny among plants or animals.
 The crude drugs of plants begin are classified on the basis of one of the
accepted systems of botanical classification.
 A large number of plant families have certain distinguishing characteristics that
permit crude drugs from these families to be studied at one time.
 Thus drugs obtained from plants having alternate leaves cymose flower and
fruit that are berries or capsules (hysocyamus, datura, belladonna, and
straamonium) are considered with other members of solanaceae.
 In case of animals all arthropods are grouped, as are all mammals fish and other
phylogenetic types.
 This system of classification is criticized for its failure to recognise the
organised and unorganised nature of the crudes drug.
 At first sight the classification looks appealing but many drugs are bot entire
plants represent part of the plant that have been processed systematically.
 Further the system fails to take into an account chemical nature of active
constituents and therapeutic significance of crude drugs.
The taxonomical classification for few crude drugs derived from dicot plants is
as follows:
Phylum Spermatophyta
Division Angiospermate
Class Dicotyledons
Order Rosales
Family Leguminosae
Sub-family Papilionaceae
Genus Glycyrrhiza, astragalus, myroxylon.
Species Glycyrrhiza glabra, astragalus gummifer, myroxylon, balsamum
Phylum Spermatophyta
Division Angiospermate
Class Dicotyledons
Sub-class Sympetalae
Order Tubiflorae
Family Solanaceae
Genus Atropa, hyoscyamus, datura
Species Hyoscyamus niger, datura, stramonium, atropa, belladonna.
Phylum Thallophyta
Class Ascomycetes
Order Clavicipitales

11. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
Family Clavicipitaceae
Genus Claviceps
Species Claviceps purpurea
Chemicalclassificationofdrugs:
 The crude drugs are divided into different groups according to the chemical
nature of their most important constituent.
 Since the pharmacological activity and therapeutic significance of the crude
drugs are based on the nature of their chemical constituent it will appear that
chemical classification of crude drugs is the preferred method of study.
 The crude drugs contain alkaloids are grouped together regardless of their
morphology and taxonomical relationship.
 Few examples of drugs chemical classification are as follows:
Glycosides Digitalis, Senna, Cascara, Liquorice.
Alkaloids Nux-vomica, ergot, cinchona, datura
Tannins Myrobalan, pale catechu, ashoka
Volatile oils Peppermint, clove, eucalyptus, garlic
Lipids Castor oil, bees wax, lanolin, cod liver oil, kokum
butter
Carbohydrate and
derived product
resins and resin
Acacia, agar, guar gum, pectin, honey, ispaghula
Combinations Colophony, jalap, balsam of tolu
Vitamins and
hormones
Yeast, shark liver oil, oxytocin, insulin
Protein and
enzymes
Casein, gelatin, papain, trypsin
 The crude drug belong to different morphological or taxonomical categories
may be brought together, provided there is some similarity in the chemical
nature of active principle
Pharmacological(therapeutic)classification:
 This system of classification involves the grouping of the crude drugs according
to pharmacological action of their chief active constituent or their therapeutic
uses.
 Regardless of morphology, taxonomical status or chemical relationship, the
drug are grouped together provided they exhibit similar pharmacological action.

12. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
 Thus cascara, castor oil, Senna, jalap, colocynth is grouped together as
purgative or laxatives because of their common pharmacological action.
 Similarly, gentian, cinchona, Nux-vomica and swertia are grouped as bitters.
 The drug different in mechanism of action but with same pharmacological
effect are grouped together.
E.g. bulk-purgative, irritant purgative, emollient purgative, etc.
 Some of drugs could be classified under two pharmacological heading since
they exhibit two different actions.
 For instance, cinchona is classified both as antimalarial and bitter tonic.
Andoutlineforpharmacologicalclassificationofdrugsareas follows:
1) Drugsactingongastricintestinaltract
Bitters Gentian, quassia, cinchina
Carminatives Dill, menthe, cardamom
Emetics ipecacuanha
Anti-amoebics Kurchi, ipecacuanha,
Bulk-laxative Agar, ispaghula, banana
Purgatives Senna, castor oil
Peptic ulcer treatment Derivatives of glycyrrhetinic acid, raw banana
2) Drugactingonrespiratorysystem
Expectorants Liquorice, ipecacuanha, vasaka
Antiexpectorants Stramonium leaves (atropine)
Antitussives Opium, (codeine, noscapine)
bronchodilators Ephedra, tea(theophylline)
3) Drugactingoncardiovascularsystem
Cardio tonics Digitalis, squill, strophanthus
Cardiac depressants Cinchona (quinidine) veratrum
Vasco-constrictors Ergot (ergotamine) ephedra
antihypertensive Rauwolfia
4) Drugactingonautonomicnervoussystem
Adrenergic ephedra
Cholinergic Physostigma, pilocarpus
anticholinergics Belladonna, datura

13. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
5) Drugactingoncentralnervoussystem
Central analgesics Opium ( morphine)
CNS stimulants Coffee (caffeine)
Analeptics Nux-vomica, lobelia, camphor
CNS depressants Hyoscyamus, belladonna, opium( morphine ND CODEINE)
Hallucinogenic Cannabis, poppy, latex
6) Antispasmodics
Smooth muscle relaxants Opium (papaverine), datura, hyoscyamus
Skeletal muscle relaxants curare
7) Anticancer…. Vinca, podophyllum, camptotheca, taxus
8) Antrheumatics …. Aconite, colchicum, guggul
9) Anthelmintic …. Quassia, male fern, vidang.
10) Immune-modulatoryagent …. Ashwagandha, tulsi, ginseng, asparagus,
picrorrhiza kurroa
 They modulate immune response and principally include immunosuppressive
agents and also biological response modifiers which act by immune stimulation.
11) Drugsactingonskinandmucusmembrane…. Olive oil, wool fat, bees
wax, rachis oils, sesame oils, balsam of tolu, balsam of Peru.
12) Astringents …. Cinchina, Artemisia
13) Immunisingagent …. Vaccines, sera, toxoids, antitoxins
14) Drugsactingchemotherapeutically… antibiotics
15) Localanaesthetics …. Coca.
Chemotaxonomicclassification:
 The expanding knowledge of phytochemical screening has revealed the
existence of close relationship between constituents of plants and their
taxonomical status.
 The chemotaxonomy has brought the plant chemist back to systematic botany in
view of the fact that certain compounds have been found to characterise certain
groupings.

14. Karnataka college of pharmacy B. pharm prepared by: Abdullah malk
 Chemotaxonomy establish the relationship between position of the plants and
attempts to utilise chemical fact for more exact understanding of the biological
evolution and relationships
 The characters more often studied in chemotaxonomy are secondary
metabolites of pharmaceutical significance such as alkaloid glycoside and
flavonoids etc.
 The knowledge of chemotaxonomy could serve as basis of classification of
crude drugs.
 The location of bebeerine alkaloid in hydrastis, beriberi’s and argemone
distribution of rutin ranuculaceous alkaloid and flavonoids in species of higher
plants are chemo taxonomical significance.
 DNA hyperdization amino acid sequencing in protein and serotaxonomy are
also gaining significance in the method of classification.