This document discusses the history and development of pharmacognosy, the study of medicinal plants and natural products. It describes how ancient civilizations like Babylonians, Egyptians, Indians and Greeks made early contributions. Key developments included the first herbal by Dioscorides in the 1st century AD and Pen Ts'ao Kang Mu in the 16th century. Modern pharmacognosy emerged in the 1930s-1960s due to discoveries like penicillin. The field has grown with developments in isolation, identification and structure elucidation of active plant constituents. Pharmacognosy also plays a role in precursor synthesis, formulations and cultivation technology. The future of pharmacognosy is promising due to realizations of natural drug

1. Pharmacognosy –I
Introduction, Development,
present status significance
& future scope

2. Welcome

6. Pharmacognosy is the study of medicinal use of various naturally
occurring drugs its history, sources, distributions, method of
cultivation, active constituents, medicinal uses, identification test,
preservation methods, substituents and adulterants.
Branches or replated disciplines of pharmacognosy

7. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PHARMACOGNOSY
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.
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

8. The Babylonians were aware of the Medicinal effects of a number of
plants.
Ancient Egyptians possessed a sound knowledge of human anatomy as
well as a knowledge of the medicinal uses of many plants and animals.

9. Papyrys Ebers- written in 1550 B.C. & discovered in a tomb of a mummy, much has been said
about the- skill and knowledge of those people in this field.
In India the study of the drugs was started about 5000 years ago at the time of the Vedas.
Ayrurveda

10. Hippocrates (460 - 370 B.C.) deals with anatomy and physiology in many of his treatises.
Aristotle (384 -322 B.C.), the great philosopher wrote much about the animal kingdom and his
writings were placed on scientific footing free from all superstitions.

11. Theophrastus (370-287 B.C.) wrote about plants and described
medicinal uses of plants.
Dioscorides a Greek physician of the1st Century A.D. was the writer
of the first Materia Medica (78 A.D.) Here he described 600
medicinal plants, including Belladona, Colchicum, Opium,
Hyoscyamus, etc.

12. Galen (131 -200 A.D.) described the method of preparing drugs of vegetable and animal
origin and laid down many formulas contained in a trearise of 20 volumes.
Pen Ts’ao Kang Moa 1000 B.C. (published only at 1597) contained an incredible number of
medicinal plants and drugs of animal origin. The Chinese thought that for every disease,
there must be a drug is only provided by the nature.

13. Pharmacognosy
This term was introduced by C.A. Seydler, a German
medical student in 1815.
Pharmakon- drug/medicine
gnosis- knowledge
gignosis- to acquire knowledge
Pharmacognosy therefore means knowledge of drugs.

14. Development of Pharmacognosy
Modern Pharmacognosy occurred during 1934 - 1960.
This development was mainly due to some events like:
Discovery of Penicillin in 1928
Isolation of Resperine 1952
Anticancer properties of Vinca rosea
Discovery of Dioscorea was utilized to prepare semi-
synthetic steroidal hormones.

15. Development of Pharmacognosy
Pharmacognosy as an applied science.
It played a crucial role in the development of
different disciplines of science.
Pharmacognosy is an imp link between
Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry

16. Development of Pharmacognosy
Natural products got more and more therapeutic importance with
developments like:
Isolation of therapeutically active constituents
Their identification and structure elucidation.
There is close link between structure and Pharmacological action.

17. Development of Pharmacognosy
Natural products served the purpose of precursor for synthesis of
several medicinally important compounds.
Some isolated components from plants were made into different
formulations and used as drugs.

18. Development of Pharmacognosy
Step by step processes in biosynthesis of Primary &
Secondary metabolites were presented before the world.
Invention of microscopy and different chemical test reagents.

19. Development of Pharmacognosy
Knowledge of
• Plant taxonomy
• Plant breeding
• Plant pathology
• Plant genetics
Is helpful in the development of cultivation
technology for medicinal and aromatic plants.

20. Present status and future prospects
• Now the people have realized the utility of drugs of natural
origin which are not only economical but even safer too.
• Active constituents from plant sources have lead to rapid
developments in Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry.
• Availability of modern state of art facility like structure
determination and pharmacological screening

21. Present status and future prospects
Rapid devt in the fields of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology
have further supported advancements in Pharmacognosy.

22. Present Status and Future Prospects
Plants like
• Podophyllum
• Liquorice
• Valerian
• Artimisia
• Veratrum
Earlier considered to be less important but their re-
evaluation have established their utility.

23. Scope of Pharmacognosy
• World Health Organisation (WHO) has emphasized the
utilization of Indigenous systems of medicine based on
folklore and locally available plant materials.
• Large scale scientific cultivation of some of the medicinally
important plants is necessary.

24. Scope of Pharmacognosy
• Some of the products like Balsam of Tolu and Peru
Benzoin, Storax, Asafoetida, Colocynth etc.,
if large scale cultivation of these drugs producing plants is
started we can save huge amount on foreign currency.

25. Scope of Pharmacognosy
• Guggulsterols from Commiphora mukul
• Podophyllotoxin from Podophyllum hexandrum
• Artimisinin from Artemisia
• Annua and Silymarine from Silybuim marionum are
approved as drugs in several countries which is
encouraging news in the fields of Pharmacognosy and
Phytochemistry.

26. Scope of Pharmacognosy
We have not yet devised the cure by modern medicine.
Only symptomatic relief is our reply as in case of Arthritic disorders,
AIDS & Cancer.

27. Thank You