Pharmacognosy is the scientific study of crude drugs sourced from nature, primarily plants, animals, minerals, and microorganisms. The historical development of pharmacognosy highlights its evolution from ancient practices in various cultures to modern advancements in pharmacological research and technology. The discipline's roots are traced back to traditional systems like Ayurveda, further expanding through notable discoveries and classification efforts in medicine over centuries.

1. Unit – 1st
Pharmacognosy
(ER20-13T)
SUMIT TIWARI
(B.PhARM)
(M.PhARM)
08-06-2022
sumit tiwari 1

2. 1. Definition of Pharmacognosy.
• “Pharmacognosy can be defined as the branch of science which deals with the systemic study of
crude drug obtained from natural sources”.
• Crude drug :- are naturally occurring substance which are either obtained from plants or animals
or from their parts and used in their natural form. they are not processed except drying and size
reduction.
08-06-2022
sumit tiwari 2

3. 2. Sources of crude drug.
• Plants:- Ginger, Neem, Turmeric, Senna, Opium.
• Animals :- Bees wax, wool fat, Harmones, Enzymes.
• Minerals :- Calamine, Bentonite.
• Micro organisms :- Antibiotics(Penicillin).
• Marine :- Fish liver oil, Sponges.
08-06-2022
sumit tiwari 3

4. 3. History of Pharmacognosy.
• With the passing time and advancement in new technologies, Pharmacognosy is now a vast subject
to study.
• In ancient times, when no medicines of modern age were available people used to treat themselves
with the material available in the nature. Some of the ways by which crude drug were discovered in
ancient time are :-
• A). TRIALAND ERROR(GUESS WORK)
• Whenever there was a Casuality people tries everything they found sometimes they worked and
sometimes not.
08-06-2022
sumit tiwari 4

5. Continue……….
B) In search of food.
• Whenever people felt hungry they search for food and if person who was hungry and
wounded at the same time, they ate herbs and spices with their food resulting in healing of
their wound.
C) Accidental discovery.
• Done either in search of food or to treat a disease.
• Ex:- Quinine from cinchona bark
• The term “Pharmacognosy” was first used as Materia medica in the year 1811 by J.A.
schmidtt, but C.A. seylder in 1815 used the word Analytica Pharmacognostica which was later
termed as “Pharmacognosy”.
08-06-2022
sumit tiwari 5

6. Continued.
• But ages before Hippocrates and seylder , Indian ancient Rishis has evolved the most effective
and natural method of medication k/a “Ayurveda”.
• Ayurveda the traditional Indian system of medicine is part of one of our vedas k/a Atharveda.
• Historians and our gurukuls has found that ayurveda was given by Bhagawan Dhanwantri (the
doctor of gods).
• Oldest written document on ayurveda is charak Samhita and sushrut Samhita.
08-06-2022
sumit tiwari 6

7. • The history of pharmacognosy is divided into three different historical periods.
• 1. Ancient history :- This include the study of crude drug or medicine system present in india,
china, Egypt, Greece and Japan dating back to more than 3000 BC.
• Pent-t-sao a Chinese scholar gave the “Shen Nung” the oldest Pharmacopeia on earth.
• Galen gave the extraction method and also the first pharmacist.
08-06-2022
sumit tiwari 7

8. 2. Early man era.
• The golden period for development of medicines.
• Isolation of first alkaloid was done by Fredrich Serturner in 1806 and Morphine was isolated.
• Carl Linnaeus classified the plants according to their biological occurrence.
• J.A. schmidtt (1811) and C.A. seylder (1815) introduced pharmacognosy to the whole world with
their work that is Materia medica and Analetica-Pharmacognostica respectively.
08-06-2022
sumit tiwari 8

9. 3. Modern era
• With the advancement in newer twchnologies, Now scientist can study more in detail about crude
drug.
• With the phytochemistry evolution, it gaves more opportunities to develop and use more crude
drug.
• Insulin, Penicillin is now synthesised in labs with the help of modern tools and equipment like
spectrometric method.(HPTLC,TLC,MS,NMR).
• Now bioassay are made possible with the help of computer aided analytical techniques (LC-MS,
GC-MS).
08-06-2022
sumit tiwari 9

10. “
”
THANK YOU
Keep it up.
SUMIT TIWARI
08-06-2022
sumit tiwari 10