Pharmacognosy

From DrugPedia: A Wikipedia for Drug discovery

The word Pharmacognosy is derived from two Greek words, ‘Pharmakon’ meaning ‘drug’ and ‘gnosis’ meaning ‘knowledge’. Therefore, Pharmacognosy literally means knowledge of drugs. Pharmacognosy is one of the important branches of pharmacy. It deals with “ the study of structural, physical, chemical and sensory characters of crude drugs of animal, vegetable and mineral origin and includes their history, cultivation, collection, storage and use. Pharmacognosy is nothing but medicinal botany.

Though the term Pharmacognosy is a modern one, the knowledge of medicinal plants and their uses are as old as humankind is. It has developed from ancient civilizations, where plants or plants parts have been used to cure human diseases / disorders. The healing power of certain herbs and plant parts such as leaves, barks, roots etc. were undoubtedly discovered by accident, but once discovered, knowledge of drugs was passed on from generation to generation.

Introduction

Pharmacology is the study of the biological effects that the chemicals in medicinal plants have on cell cultures, animals and humans. The renaissance of herbal medicine in this country creates a demand for studies in the field of pharmacognosy. From a practical perspective this includes:

• quality control (identity, purity, consistency)
• efficacy (therapeutic indications, clinical studies, pharmacological investigations)
• safety (adverse reactions, drug interactions, contraindications, precautions)

Pharmacognosy is interdisciplinary, drawing on a broad spectrum of biological and socio-scientific subjects, including botany, ethnobotany, medical anthropology, marine biology, microbiology, herbal medicine, chemistry (phytochemistry), pharmacology, pharmaceutics, clinical pharmacy and pharmacy practice. The contemporary study of pharmacognosy can be divided into the fields of

• medical ethnobotany: the study of the traditional use of plants for medicinal purposes;
• ethnopharmacology: the study of the pharmacological qualities of traditional medicinal substances;
• the study of phytotherapy (the medicinal use of plant extracts); and
• phytochemistry, the study of chemicals derived from plants (including the identification of new drug candidates derived from plant sources).