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1. Introduction to Pharmacognosy
DR. SIDDHI UPADHYAY
H.O.D. & ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
DEPT. OF PHARMACOGNOSY AND PHYTOCHEMISTRY
SIGMA INSTITUTE OF PHARMACY

2. CONTENT
1. Definition of Pharmacognosy
2. History of Pharmacognosy
3. Scope of Pharmacognosy
4. Development of Pharmacognosy
5. Types of Crude Drugs – Organized &
Unorganized Drugs
6. Sources of Crude Drugs – Plants, Animals,
Marine & Tissue culture

3. Definition of Pharmacognosy

4.  Pharmacognosy is derived from twoGreek
words,
Pharmakon & Ginosco
Pharmakon – means ‘drug’.
Ginosco – means ‘to acquire knowledge of’.
Means “to acquire the knowledge of drugs”.
 So, Pharmacognosy is a study of crude drugs that
originate in the plants, animals, minerals and marines.

5. Pharmacognosy is broadly defined as the
scientific and systematic study of the
structural, physical, chemical and sensory
characters of
crude drugs of
vegetable, animal, marine and mineral origin
along with their
history, method of cultivation, collection and
preparation for the market.

6.  Pharmacognosy word was coined by
a German Scientist C.A. Seydler
in 1815 during his work entitled
“Analecta Pharmacognostica”.
 In 19th Century,
“Materia Medica” was used to represent
the subject
“Pharmacognosy”.

7. History of Pharmacognosy

8. SR.
NO.
NAME OF
THE
SCIENTIST
WORK PERIOD
OF THE
SCIENTIST
CONTRIBUTION OF SCIENTIST IN THE
HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT
PHARMACOGNOSY
1 Papyrus Ebers 16
th
Century Prepared 60x1 ft. document containing
information regarding 800 formula & 700
different drugs
2 Shen Nung 3000 BC Wrote a book named “Pen-t’sao” containing
365drugs, 1 for each day of the year
3 Charaka
(Indian
Scientist)
300 BC Made 50 group of 10 herbs, each of which
according to him would suffice an ordinary
physician’s need, He wrote a book “Charaka
Samhita”
4 Sushruta
(Indian
Scientist)
- Arranged 760 herbs in 7 distinct sets based on
some of their common properties . He wrote a
book “Sushruta Samhita”
5 Hippocrates 460-360 BC He is known as Father of Medicine

9. SR.
NO
.
NAME OF
THE
SCIENTIST
WORK
PERIOD OF
THE
SCIENTIST
CONTRIBUTION OF SCIENTIST IN THE
HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT
PHARMACOGNOSY
6 Aristotle 384-322 BC Research Work Contribution
7 Dioscorides 40-80 AD Research Work Contribution
8 Galen 131-200 AD He is First Pharmacist. He had a numbers of
pain-relieving materials including “opium”
in his Apothecary*.
9 Le’mery 1645-1715 He gave importance of extraction methods
& reported Alcohol as an Extractant.
10 Swede
Linnaeun
1707-1778 He was a Systematist. He classified plants
and introduced the system of naming the
plants known as “Binomial System”.
*Apothecary = A person who prepare and sell medicine

10. SR.
NO
.
NAME OF
THE
SCIENTIST
WORK
PERIOD OF
THE
SCIENTIST
CONTRIBUTION OF SCIENTIST IN THE
HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT
PHARMACOGNOSY
11 William
Withering
1785 He published an account of some of the
medicinal properties of Digitalis leaves based
on 10 years of experimentation by using
percolation method.
12 Derosane
(French
Scientist)
1803 He isolated narcotine from opium
13 Serturner 1806 He isolated morphine from opium and
recognise its role in relieving pain.
14 Pelletier
(French
Scientist)
- He isolated strychnine from Ignatius beans
and Nux vomica Seeds.
15 Stass & Otto 1852 They developed new extraction process for

11. SR.
NO.
NAME OF
THE
SCIENTIST
WORK
PERIOD OF
THE
SCIENTIST
CONTRIBUTION OF SCIENTIST IN
THE HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT
PHARMACOGNOSY
16 Bentham
& Hooker
1862-1863 They did development in plants
classification system.
17 Posselt &
Reimann
1828 They isolated nicotine from tobacco
leaves
18 Neumann 1860 He isolated cocaine
19 G. Mandel 1865 He did important observation on
plant hybrids.
20 Berg 1865 He published a book named
“Anatomical Atlas of Crude Drugs”.

12. SR.
NO
.
NAME OF
THE
SCIENTIST
WORK
PERIOD OF
THE
SCIENTIST
CONTRIBUTION OF SCIENTIST IN THE
HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT
PHARMACOGNOSY
21 Hardy 1875 He isolated pilocarpine
22 Gerrad 1877 He isolated ouabain
23 A. W. Eichler 1883 He did development in plants classification
system.
24 Nagai 1887 He isolated ephedrine
25 Engler &
Prandtle
1887-1891 They did development in plants
classification system
26 Kuersten 1891 He isolated podophyllotoxin
27 Greenish &
Collin
1904 He compiled anatomical characters of
several powdered drugs of great
significance. He published a book named
“An Atlas of Powdered Vegetable Drugs”.

13. Scope of Pharmacognosy

14. 1. ACTION OF DRUGS
 The knowledge of the action of drugs can be utilized successfully
when the identity , physical nature and chemical constituents of the
drug are well known , and pharmacognosy supplies this information.
 Solubility
 Reactivity
 Stability
 Toxicity
 Dosage , availability
 And isolation , purification natural origin

15. 2. DRUG FORMULATION
 Formulation and actual preparation of a
pharmaceutical product (pharmaceutics) are
dependent on a number of properties; such as
solubility, stability, reactivity, etc. of ingredients.
 This type of information on substances of natural
origin is available to the pharmacist if he possesses
a good knowledge of pharmacognosy.

16. 3. PRICE OF PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS
 Price of pharmaceutical products
containing natural substances is
influenced by the methods of
collection , drying , curing , and
assaying of the ingredients , which are
dealt with in pharmacognosy .

17. 4. ISOLATION OF PHYTOCHEMICALS
 ALKALOIDS : alkaloids are obtained from the
plants of Belladonna , Hyocyamus , Rauwlofia
.
 GLYCOSIDES : glycosides are obtained from
the digitalis leaves
 MORPHINE : morphine and other alkaloids
from opium plant .

18. 5. STRUCTURAL ACTIVITY RELATION SHIP
 Tubocurarine and Toxiferine from
curare plant have muscle relaxant
properties because of quaternary
ammonium groups .
 The hypotensive and tranquilizing action
of reserpine are due to the trimethoxy
benzoic acid .

19. 6. DRUGS OBTAINED BY PARTIAL SYNTESIS
 Pharmacognosy plays important role in the
synthesis of new drugs by the natural
products.
 For example , Preparation of steroid
hormones from diosgenin by acetolysis and
oxidation and further preparation of
cortisone by microbial reaction .

20. 7. NATURAL PROUCTS AS A MODEL
 Natural products are used as a model for the synthesis of new
drugs ;
 MORPHINE : it is a model of a large group of potent drugs .
 COCAINE : it is a model for local anesthesia .
 ATROPINE : is a model for certain spasmolytics .

21. 8. DRUGS OF THERAPEUTIC USES
 It has a wide scope for the main element in
providing us with the information about the dugs of
main therapeutic uses such as alkaloids , steroids ,
antibiotics etc.
 And helps in the cultivation and collection of many
medicinal plants.
 Helps in preparation of herbal formulation

22. 9. BIOSYNTHETIC PATHWAYS
 Biosyntheticpathways are of primary and
secondary metabolites.
 Some of the important pathways are Calvin's
cycle of photosynthesis.
 Shikimic acid pathway of aromatic
compounds

23. Development of
Pharmacognosy

24. 1. Pharmacognosy is important branch of pharmacy which
is playing key role in new drug discovery and
development by using natural products.
Pharmacognosy has given many leads for new drug
discovery and development.
2. It is an important link between modern medicine
systems (allopathy) and traditional system of medicine.
It is part medicinal system which is affordable as well as
accessible to common man. As part of integrative
system of medicine, pharmacognosy can help to
increase effectiveness of modern medicine system.

25. 3. It is acting as bridge between pharmacology, medicinal
chemistry and pharmacotherapeutics and also
pharmaceutics. It also bridges pharmaceutics with other
pharmacy subjects.
4. More than 60 percent of world population is still using
natural product for their primary healthcare needs.
Pharmacognosy can provide safe and effective drugs in
combination with modern medicine system.

26. 5. Pharmacognosy includes knowledge about safe use of
herbal drugs including toxicity, side effects, drug
interaction; thereby increasing effectiveness of modern
medicine.
6. Pharmacognosy is an important link between
pharmacology and medicinal chemistry. As a result of
rapid development of phytochemistry and
pharmacological testing methods in recent years, new
plant drugs are finding their way into medicine as
purified phytochemicals, rather than in the form of
traditional galenical preparations.

27. 7. Pharmacognosy is the base for development of novel
medicines. Most of the compounds obtained from
natural product serve as prototype or base for
development of new drug which are more active and
less toxic.
8. By means of pharmacognosy, natural products can be
dispensed, formulated and manufactured in dosage
forms acceptable to modern system of medicine.

28. 9. There are vast number of plant and animal species which are
not studied systematically.
10. Development of pharmacognosy also leads to development
of
botany
taxonomy
plant biotechnology
plant genetics
plant pathology
pharmaceutics
pharmacology
phytochemistry
other branches of science.

29. Types of Crude Drugs –
Organized & Unorganized
Drugs

30. • Drugs are organized or unorganized.
• Organized drugs are direct parts of the
plants and consist of cellular tissues.
• Unorganized drugs, even though prepared
from plants, are not the direct parts of the
plants and are prepared by some
intermediary physical processes like
incision, drying, or extraction with water
and do not contain cellular tissue.

31. Difference between
Organized and Unorganized drugs

32. Unorganized Drugs – Dried Latex

34. Unorganized Drugs – Dried Juices
 The juices are 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 juices coming out juice collected and dried. Example:
Aloe

35. Unorganized Drugs – Dried Extracts
 Dried extract is a solid drug preparation that can be
incorporated into tablets, coated tablets and capsules.
 In production, the drug is most exhaustively extracted with a
solvent.
 Thereafter, the solvent used for extraction evaporates again
and the solid residue is fed to a drying process. Dried extracts
have a moisture content of max. 5%, however, they tend to
attract moisture and thus clump together.
 Therefore, the dried extracts often contain additives such as
maltodextrin, syrup, silica, etc..

36. Unorganized Drugs – Gums and Mucilages

37. Unorganized Drugs –
Oleoresins(resins and gums)

38. Unorganized Drugs – oleo-
gum-resin
 A solid plant exudation (as asafetida or myrrh) consisting
of a mixture of volatile oil, gum, and resin.

39. Sources of Crude Drugs –
Plants, Animals, Marine &
Tissue culture

40. Plants as Sources of Crude Drugs
SR.
NO.
PLANT
PART
TYPE OF
DRUG
EXAMPLES OF PLANT PART
DRUGS
1 Leaves Organized Vinca, Vasaka
2 Roots Organized Rauwolfia, Ipecac
3 Stems Organized Ephedra
4 Rhizomes Organized Turmeric, Ginger
5 Flowers Organized Clove, Saffron
6 Fruits Organized Coriander, Fennel
7 Seeds Organized Nux-Vomica, Isapgol
8 Woods Organized Quassia, Sandalwood
9 Barks Organized Cinchona, Kurchi

41. SR.
NO.
PLANT PART TYPE OF
DRUG
EXAMPLES OF PLANT PART
DRUGS
10 Entire drugs Organized Ephedra, Ergot
11 Dried lattices Un-organized Opium, Papain
12 Dried juices Un-organized Aloe vera, Red gum
13 Dried extracts Un-organized Gelatin, Agar
14 Gums &
Mucilages
Un-organized Acacia, Tragacanth
15 Resins &
Resin
combinations
Un-organized Myrrh, Asafoetida

42. Animals as Sources of Crude Drugs
SR.
NO.
ANIMAL NAME
(Botanical Name)
DRUG TYPE OF
DRUGS
1 Cod Fish
(Godus morrhua)
Cod Liver Oil Organized
2 Hos
(Sus scrofa)
Lard Organized
3 Shark
(Hyporian brevirostris)
Shark Liver Oil Organized
4 Shark
(Galeorhinus zyopterus)
Shark Liver Oil Organized
5 Sheep
(Ovis aries)
Hydrous Wool Fat Un-organized

43. Marine as Sources of Crude Drugs
SR.
NO.
MARINE ORGANISM
(Botanical Name)
ACTIVE CHEMICAL
CONSTITUENT
1 Red Algae
(Chondria opposiliclada)
Cycloeudesmol
2 Annelida
(Thelespus serosus)
Tholpin

44. Tissue culture as Sources of Crude Drugs
SR.
NO.
PLANTS THAT ARE
CULTIVATED
THROUGH TISSUE
CULTURE
1 Rauwolfia serpentina
2 Dioscorea species
3 Nicotiana tobacum
4 Phaseolus vulgaris
5 Trichonederma viride
SR.
NO.
PLANTS THAT ARE
CULTIVATED
THROUGH TISSUE
CULTURE
6 Cassia angustifolia
7 Atropa belladonna
8 Coffea arabica
9 Digitalis lanata

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