Page 12 - Pharmacy History 32 July 2007

A word not used in schools of pharmacy these days is Pharmacognosy
Comment by Geoff Miller
P harmacognosy’ is derived from the Greek,
pharmakon, a drug, and ‘gignosco, to acquire a knowledge of.
In America terraces dating from Inca times testify to the early cultivation of coca, and coca leaves taken from an Inca tomb have been examined chemically and microscopically
in recent years. The kings of the Montezuma line had gardens in which medicinal plants such as that yielding balsam of Peru were cultivated.
Mention must be made also of the early civilisations of Babylonia, Assyria, and the Far East, the caravan routes by which their drugs and other commodities were carried, and of the extensive maritime interests
of the Arabians and Phoenicians. From very early times Egypt and the Mediterranean countries received drugs by overland routes from as far away as China and by sea-routes from the coasts of Africa, India, and the Far East. During these long journeys the drugs usually passed through many hands, with the result that
the consumers often found them
very expensive and were frequently unaware of their country of origin.* The great importance of spices in times when fresh meat was only available at certain seasons of
the year was an important factor
in stimulating rivalry between commercial nations, and encouraged exploration and subsequent European colonisation.
Take for example the fragrant spice, Cardamon.
The official drug consists of the ripe, or nearly ripe seeds of Elettaria Cardamomum Maton, var. minuscula, but what a mouthful for the pharmacist to remember!
As more and more medicinal plants were being used, it became necessary to develop nomenclature that would enable the plants and their different varieties to be identified.
A generation ago, pharmacists had to know their materia medica and
It appears to have been first used in 1815, but in recent years the word pharma-cognosy has largely replaced the term materia medica among pharmacists but not among doctors While the terms have frequently been used as synonyms, the pharmacognosy taught in schools of pharmacy differs from the materia medica of the schools of medicine. The retention of both terms in their respective spheres seems desirable. Materia medica, in
its widest sense, includes substances of mineral as well as animal and vegetable origin and embraces to some extent the study of therapeutics. Pharmacognosy, on the other hand, is concerned with drugs of animal and vegetable origin only, and although text books on the subject usually include notes on .the uses of each drug, no attempt is made to teach therapeutics and pharmacognosy presupposes a knowledge of botany, chemistry, physics, and elementary zoology. It embraces geography, history, ethnology, and etymology, at least as applied to drugs; it includes the collection, preparation, and commerce or drugs.
The cultivation of plants for dietetic and medicinal use is of extreme antiquity. Linseed, for example, was cultivated in Egypt during the stone age, and poppy seeds have been found in lake dwellings. The date and barley have been cultivated from at least 5000 BC, and an Assyrian clay tablet in the British Museum refers to a brown drug, ‘a daughter of the poppy,’ which is obviously opium. Medicinal plant culture was encouraged by the Babylonian kings as early as 1940 BC and about
150 BC an Egyptian queen had a greenhouse erected for the cultivation of medicinal plants.
Gathering Cardamon seeds
learnt names like Digitalis purpurea, Papaver somniferum and so on. They were also familiar with the physical characteristics of the raw drugs so they could identify them for quality by their appearance, taste, feel etc.
Up until 300 years ago, there was no consistent procedure for identifying and naming the myriad of natural materiels that were being discovered around the world by explorers, scientific adventurers and all manner of researchers.
What had seemed like an impossible task was eventually solved by a Swedish doctor- botanist, Carl Linnaeus who invented the binomial system of biological nomenclature which brought order to the names and descriptions of all things from the living world.
His story follows...
12 ■ Pharmacy History Australia
volume 3 ■ no 32 ■ JULY 2007