History Of Pharmacy For pharmD students

History of Pharmacy

Here A very Brief and summarized History from the beginning to the future

Eras in History Of Pharmacy:

 1. Ancient Era – Beginning of time to 1600 AD

                     a) Greek o Roman Era

                     b) The Renaissance

  2. Empiric Era – 1600 to 1940

  3. Industrialization Era – 1940 to 1970

  4. Patient Care Era 1970 to present

  5. Biotechnology and genetic engineering

1. Ancient Era:

•  The beginning of time to 1600 AD
• Early man used materials in his surroundings, Leaves, mud and cool water were used to stop bleeding and heal wounds.
• Dry clay was used to splint broken bones.
• They copied animal behavior

PHARMACY IN ANCIENT BABYLONIA:

• Babylon, jewel of ancient Mesopotamia, often called the cradle of civilization.
• It provides the earliest known practice of the art of the apothecary
• Practitioners of healing of this era (about 2600 B.C.) were priest, pharmacist and physician, all in one.

 PHARMACY IN ANCIENT CHINA:

• Chinese Pharmacy stems from Shen Nung (about 2000 B.C.)
•  An emperor who sought out and investigated the medicinal value of several hundred herbs
•  Medicinal plants include podophyllum, rhubarb, ginseng, stramonium, cinnamon bark, ephedra etc. 

DAYS OF EBERS PAPYRUS:   

• One of the earliest known records written around 1500 B.C. was the Ebers Papyrus named by George Ebers
•  Contains formulas for more than 800 ancient remedies.  

A) Greek-o-Roman Era:

• Around 600 B.C. the Greeks integrated science into mythological thinking 
•   The began thinking logically about disease rather than believing spiritual explanations
• The Romans conquered the Greeks and the medical and pharmaceutical cultures merged, it is known as the Greek-o-Roman era.

 HIPPOCRATES:

• “The father of Medicine” was a philosopher, Physician and Pharmacist.
• He liberated medicine from the mythical “Bad Spirits”
•  He also wrote the Oath of Hypocrites
• Early copy of the Hippocratic Oath 

THEOSOPHISTS: 

• He studied the adverse affects of plants

PARACELSUS:

•  Theophrastus Phillippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim
• Swiss born physician who believed in chemical treatment of disease rather than botanical.                                                  

TERRA SIGILLATA (AN EARLY "TRADEMARKED" DRUG):

•     It’s a clay tablet originating on the Mediterranean island of Lemnos before 500 B.C.

DIOSCORIDES (A SCIENTIST LOOKS AT DRUGS):

• Pedanios Dioscorides (first century A.D.), He observed, recorded and spread the excellent rules for collection of drugs, their storage and use.  
• His texts were considered basic science as late as the sixteenth century.  
• “Matria medica” by Dioscordes is the standard of drugs.

GALEN (EXPERIMENTER IN DRUG COMPOUNDING):

• His principles of preparing and compounding medicines ruled in the Western world for 1,500 years; and his name still is associated with that class of pharmaceuticals compounded by mechanical means – galenical.
• He was the originator of the formula for a cold cream.

DAMIAN AND COSMAS (PHARMACY'S PATRON SAINTS):

•  Damian was the apothecary and Cosmas was the physician.

MONASTIC   PHARMACY:

• During the Middle Ages remnants of the Western knowledge of Pharmacy and Medicine were preserved in the monasteries (fifth to twelfth centuries)
•  The monks gathered herbs and raised them in their own herb gardens
• These they prepared according to the art of the apothecary for the benefit of the sick and injured.

Roman pharmacy titles

•  Pharmacopeia: Maker of remedies
•  Pharmacotritae: Drug Grinders
•  Unguentarii: Makers of ointments
•  Pigmentarii: Maker of cosmetics
•  Pharmacopolae: Seller of drugs
•  Aromatarii: Dealers of spices
•  Pharmacist of today had not yet evolved 

The Arabian Influence:

• Major advances in this era
• Formularies: The continuation of documentation of drug information. 
• They also had different drug forms which are now used: Syrups, Conserves, Confections and juleps. 
• The first Pharmacy shop in the world was in Baghdad about 792 A.D

AVICENNA - THE "PERSIAN GALEN" :

• Ibn Sina (about 980-1037 A.D.) called Avicenna by the Western world. 
• He gave contribution to the sciences of pharmacy and medicine by his pharmaceutical teachings

b) The Renaissance (1350- 1650 A.D):

• Pharmacy became separated from medicine.(17th  century)
• Pharmacy Regulation began.
• University education for pharmacists was now required.
• More and new drugs were imported from the orient.
• New chemicals were introduced.                 
• Guilds we formed for the profession of Pharmacy. 
• Physicians did not take pharmacists seriously.  
• In small towns they were put in the same guild as spicers.

Important people of the Ancient Era:

 Hippocrates: The father of medicine wrote the Oath of Hippocrates “ Hippocratic Oath physicians still take today.

Theophrastus: Father of botany Experimented with many types of plants as medications.

Paracelsus : Believed in chemical made medications and discounted herbal and botanical medications.

Dioscorides : A scientist looks at drugs

Galen : Experimenter in drug compounding

Damian and cosmas: Pharmacy's patron saints

2.The Empiric Era (1600-1940 ):

• Pharmacopeias were used to protect public health.
• Roots, Bark, Herbs Flowers etc. were used and controlled by the government.
• They questioned the toxicological affects on the human body.
• Created interest in testing of drugs and how they affected the body
•  The society of apothecaries of london In 1617 formed by francis bacon.
• Louis hebert formed an apothecary to new france (canada). 

• In 1751 Benjamin Franklin started the first hospital
• In Pennsylvania, PA. It was moved but still stands today. 
• The first hospital pharmacist to work in that hospital was Jonathan Roberts.

WILLIAM PROCTOR:(The father of American Pharmacy)

• Spent most of his life to the advancement of pharmacy.
• He owned an apothecary shop, teacher, editor and a scientist.
• Science grew in the 17 th and 18 th centuries Many new drugs and chemicals were identified.Nitrogen, Chlorine, Zinc, Oxygen, Atropine, Quinine, Caffeine, Morphine, Codeine, Penicillin, Testosterone, Phenobarbital Niacin.

3.Industrialization Era:

•  More people needed drugs for injuries and illnesses from the wars, so mass production of medications were made through industrial machine.
•  Scientific research was also growing in the industrial era. Investigations into medicines and their effects were studied.
• Due to all the research many new drugs and uses of old drugs were being used which caused more reactions and interactions with medications. that is why the patient care era is called that.

4.Patient Care Era:

• New problems – Complications like allergic reactions, multiple drug interactions with other drugs and food.
• Increased the therapeutic duties of patient care in the pharmacies and hospitals.

5.Biotechnology Era (Now to the future):

 DNA AND GENETIC TECHNOLOGY:

• Gene therapy is being conducted.
• Some diseases are linked to genetic defects.
• Modifying the genetic makeup of people may prevent or cure diseases.

• Recombinant DNA technology: Recombinant DNA is a form of synthetic DNA that is engineered through the combination or insertion of one or more DNA strands, thereby combining DNA sequences that would not normally occur together. 

      
*This Lecture is Prepare by a student of PharmD.Thank you for Sharing .
Regards