Pharmacognosy is the study of medicinal drugs from natural sources. It originated from the Greek words for "drug" and "knowledge." Ancient civilizations like China, Egypt, and India had extensive knowledge of herbal medicines documented in texts. Modern pharmacognosy developed in the 19th-20th centuries with the isolation of active compounds from plants like penicillin. It now focuses on characterizing compounds from diverse natural sources and their potential as drug models or therapies.

1. HISTORY, DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF PHARMACOGNOSY
NAME:- ISHAN VINAY SHAH
ROLL NO.:- C006
CLASS:- MSC1
SAP ID:-40504210007

2. INTRODUCTION
 The term pharmacognosy was derived from merging two Greek
words 'pharmakon' which means drug and 'gnosis' which means
knowledge of.
 Some even states that the word pharmacognosy was derived from
two Latin words 'pharmakon' meaning 'a drug' and 'gignoso'
meaning 'to acquire knowledge of'
 The term "pharmacognosy" was first time used by the physician J.
A. Schmidt in 1811 and C. A. Seydler in 1815.
 It has played a significant role in discovery, characterization,
production & standarization of natural drugs.

3.  Studies on poisonous,
hallucinogenic,
teratogenic, oral
contraceptives,
aphrodisiac, spices,
beverages and
condiments are
included in the
subject matters of
pharmacognosy.

4.  Neanderthals use of healing herbs such as yarrow, marshmallow before 60,000 years.
 Innovation = guesswork or trial & error or observsation or accidental discovery or curiosity or search for food.
 It was initially known as materia medica. Study of crude drugs obtained from plants, animals and mineral
kingdom

5.  Some plants are used entirely or parts of plants such as
senna leaves, nux vomica seeds, ginger rhizome and
cinchona corm.
 Aloe from leaves of aloe species, opium from the dried
latex from poppy capsules and black katechu from acacia
catechu.
 Cotton, silk, jute, are also other crude drugs.
 Durgs are either organized or unorganized.
Organized: From direct plant parts
Unorganized: Not direct but are a bit processed.

6. HISTORY OF
PHARMACOGNOSY
The ancient man feed on tubers, fruits, seeds etc. And if
nothing happened after consuming them it was
consider as an edible food, but if he observed any other
effects then he used them for other uses such as:
If it caused diarrhea it was used as purgative, if vomiting
it was used as emetic and if it was found to be
poisonous it was used to make arrows to hunt animals.
And this was passed from one generation to
another generation.

7. ANCIENT CHINA
 Shen Nung Chinese emperor about 2700BC ago who
sought out and investigated the medicinal value of
several hundred herbs.
 He experimented on himself and wrote the first Pen T-
Sao recording 365 herbs.
 He divided them into sub-groups which were 120
emperor drugs, 120 minister drugs and 125 servant
drugs.
 An old oracle bone was found in Hunan Province during
Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 BC) on which records of
illness, medicines and medical treatment.
 There were silk banners and bamboo stips were
discovered from tomb at Ma-Hunag-Tui in Chnagsha,
Hunan Province, which were copied from books
during Chin and Han periods (300BC - 3AD)

8.  Most important clinical manual of traditional chinese medicine is
Shang Hang Lun written by Chang Chung-Ching(142-220)
 Chin Kuei YaoLueh historical origin of most important herbal
formulas called Kampo.

9.  In Pen T'sao
herbs are divided into six
categories:
1. Stones
2. Grasses and trees
3. Insect and animals
4. Fruits and vegetables
5. Grains
6. Named but unused

10. ANCIENT EGYPT
 The most complete medical documents existing are the
Ebers Papyrus (1500BC) which had collection of 800
prescriptions which had 700 drugs.
 Edwin Smith Papyrus (1600BC) described surgical
instructions and formulas for cosmetics.
 The Kahun Medical Papyrus is the oldest. It comes from
1900 BC and mainly dealth with health of
women, including birthing instruction.

11.  Senna, honey, thyme,
juniper, cumin- for
digestive purpose
 Pomegranate roots,
henbane for worms

12. ANCIENT INDIA
 In India, the knowledge about medicinal plants are very old and
has been described in Rigveda and Atharvaveda (3500-1500BC)
from which Ayurveda has developed.
 It can be divided into 3 main writings I.e., Charaka
Samhita, Susruta Samhita, Astanga Hrdayam Samhita
 Ayurveda made from two words Ayur meaning life and
Veda means science and knowledge.
 The oldest writing is Charaka Samhita which is dated back
to 700BC.

13.  Ayurveda is built on the concept of 5 element and interaction
of our body (microcosm) with the universe (macrocosm).
 The 5 elements are:
1. Ether/ space (Akash)
2. Wind (Vayu)
3. Fire (Tejas)
4. Water (Jala)
5. Earth (Prthvi)

14. ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME
 Hippocrates (460-370BC) is referred as father of medicines
and is remembered for his famous oath which is even now
administered.
 Aristotle is known for his writing on animal kingdom.
 Theophrastus wrote about plant kingdom.
 Dioscorides described medicinal plants such
as belladonna, ergot, opium, colchicum.
 Galen devised methods to prepare drugs from plants and
animals and his writings were known as 'Galenicals'.
 The development of modern pharmacognosy took place
during 1934-1960.

15.  The development of pharmacology was mainly due to 4 major
events:
1. Isolation of penicillin in 1928 by william fleming and large scale
production of in 1941 by Florey and Chain
2. Isolation of resperpine from rauwolfia roots and confirming its
hypotensive and tranqulizing properties.
3. Isolation of vinca alkaloids, especially vincristine and vinblasting.
They have anticancerous properties.
4. Steroids hormones like progesterone were isolated from diosgenin
and other steroids by Marker's method.

16. ASPECTS OF NATURAL
PRODUCTS LEADING TO
MODERN DEVELOPMENT
OF DRUGS
 Isolation of phytochemicals
 Structure activity relationship
 Natural products as models for
synthesis of new drugs
 Drugs of direct therapeutic
uses
 Biosynthetic pathways

17. SCOPE OF PHARMACOGNOSY
 Do you know what is the core subject matter of pharmacognosy?
Crude drugs of natural origins
 In 19th century apothecaries stocked the crude drugs for various purposes
 But during the 2nd half there were major discoveries towards chemistry.
 Medicinal plants became it one of the major object of interest which bought interested
phytochemist. They succeeded in isolating the pure active constituents.
 Further this replaced the crude drugs and development of semisynthetic and synthetic drugs
came in picture.

18.  Replaced by modren medicines
 Researchers are exploiting every possible way
 Focus on marine fauna and flora
 Wild sources were limited and prices were exorbitantly high
 Academics
 Private industry
 Government

19. REFERENCES
 link.springer.com
 https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-
science/pharmacognosy