Definition,

History and
Scope of
Pharmacognosy
Definition of Pharmacognosy
Study of crude drugs obtained from
natural sources
Study of the sources, cultivation and
collection, chemical constituents,
chemical tests, morphological and
microscopical examination, uses,
adulterants, substituents of drug
substances of natural origin as well as the
search for new drugs from natural
sources.
History and Development
Exploration of medicinal plants in ancient
time
 Trial and error guess work
 While searching for food
 Signature of nature eg: Gingko biloba leaf
 Accidental discovery eg: penicillin
Indian History of Pharmacognosy
Before 3500 BC – Rigveda and Attarvaveda
Between 3500-1500 BC – “ Ayurveda”
Ayurveda
Charaka Samhita Sushrutha Samhita
Materia Medica
Different historical periods
1) Ancient history – China, India, Egypt,
Greece
Documents
o Pen -ts’ao (3000 BC) – Shen Nung
o Papyrus Ebers (1500 BC) – Georg Ebers
Scientists
o Hippocrates (460-360 BC) – “ Father of
Medicine”
o Aristotle (384- 322) – “ Father of Biology”
o Theophrastus (370-287 BC) – “Father of
Botany”
o Pedanius Dioscorides (40-80 AD) – “De
Materia Medica”
o Galen( 131-200 AD) – “First Pharmacist”

1) Early Modern Era (16th -19th Century)

o Swede Linnaeus (1753) – Binomial
classification
o J.A. Schmidt(1811) – Introduction of word
“Pharmacognosy” in Lehrbuch de Materia
Medica
o C A Seydler (1815) – used the word
“Pharmacognosy” in Analectica
Pharmacognostica
o Friedrich Serturner (1806) – Era of pure
compound isolation
o Feliz Hoffman (1893) – synthetic chemistry
evolved
1) Modern Era ( 20th century onwards)
 Phytochemistry evolved
 Animal drugs discovered
o Chromatographic and modern instrumental
methods developed
o Bioassay methods developed
o Hyphenated computer – aided analytical
techniques developed
Scope of Pharmacognosy
1. Collection and cultivation of medicinal
plants
2. Preparation of general tonics and
stimulants
3. In Steroid industry
4. Antibiotics preparation
5. Flavouring agents and perfumes
6. Tissue culture
9) Isolation or analysis of phytochemical
10) Structure activity relationship
11) Natural products as models for synthesis of
new drugs
12) Biosynthetic pathways investigation
13) Preparation of herbal formulations