Faculty of Pharmacy

Introduction –
part 1
Pharmacognosy & phytochemistry

Dr. Yousef Abusamra

 Objective:
 The objective of this course is to give to the
students of pharmacy the basic knowledge
about the Medicinal Plants and
Pharmacognosy and discussion of Medicinal
Plants according to their uses and their effects
upon the different organs of the body.

HISTORY OF PHARMACOGNOSY
From earliest times man had developed a knowledge of naturally
occurring drugs which has been transmitted by:
• 1. orally
• 2. later in written form as papers,
• 3. backed clay tables,
• 4. printed herbals,
• 5. pharmacopoeias,
• 6. most recently by computerized information.
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 Introduction

Pharmacognosy: “pharmakon”: Greek name meaning: drug,

and “gignosco”: to acquire knowledge. Appears with its
clear features in the 18 th century (Adam Schmidt and
Seydler).
- It is related to botany and chemsitry and it embraces
several disciplines such as: commerce, botany, chemsitry
enzymology, genetics, quality control and pharmacology.
- - Can be defined as: a science that deals with natural products used
as drugs or for the production and discovery of drugs.
- It is mostly concerned with the followings:
Naturally occurring substances. 3

Natural and semi-synthetic fibers.

Materials used in pharmacy such as: hallucinating plants, raw
materials for production of herbicides and insecticides.
Concerned with drugs, their history, commerce, collection,
preparation and storage.
Elucidation of biogenetic pathways for formation of active
secondary metabolites.
Employing analytical methods (e.g. chromatography) for
identification and determination of drugs such as plants,
tissue culture of plants.
Growing markets of natural products (e.g. Chinese and Asian)
necessitates the addition of more monographs about these
products, the matter that enriches pharmacognosy.
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Classification of Drugs:
1. Alphabetical:
• Using Latin or English names.
• Used in dictionaries and pharmacopoeias
• ADVANTAGE: Gives a quick reference.
• DISADVANTAGE: provides no indication of interrelationship between
drugs.
2. Taxonomical:
• Uses the botanical classification: drugs are arranged according to the
source of the plants.
• Thus, using: classes, orders, families, genera and species.
• ADVANTAGE: allows quick and precise arrangement that is devoid of
ambiguities.
• Its use is decreasing with decreasing the knowledge of the
practitioners mainly pharmacists.Uses the basis of the
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 Pattern of Engler:

• Example: Mentha piperita Linnaeus … (species) Pippermint,

which can exhibit varieties:
Mentha piperita var. officinalis Sole (white pippermint)
Mentha piperita var. vulgaris Sole (Black pippermint),
where “Sole” and “Linnaeus” are names of the scientists
who were the first to describe the plant and introduce the
plant to science.
• These names shoul not be memorized.
• Mostly we are interested in the binomial system of
nomenclature (double Latin title), that was employed by6
the Swedish biologist Linnaeus in the 18th century.

Pharmacognosy and phytochemistry – Introduction part 1 Page 4

• Example: Conium maculatum (Hemlock; Arabic:
Shawkaran): The first name starts in capital letter and
denotes the genus, the second one (specific) starts with
small letter and indicates a striking characteristic or feature.
• i.e.: maculatum: spotted.
• Other example: Hypericum perforatum, the specific name
perforatum denotes holes, as the leaves appear with holes
wish are not really holes (perforated, pierced).
• Both names are printed in literature in italic style.
• Students can use underlining style.

Example:

Watercress

Cabbage family

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 Taxonomic classification

3. Morphological:

• Drugs are divided into groups:

a) Organized drugs: such as: leaves, flowers fruits, seeds, herbs, entire
organisms, woods, barks, rhizomes and roots.
b) Unorganized drugs: such as: dried latices, extracts, gums, oils and
waxes.
 ADVANTAGE: suitable for drug study in the lab; that the powdered
drugs are identified depending on the micro-morphological
characters.

4. Pharmacological or therapeutic:
• Invloves listing drugs according to the pharmacological action of their
most important constituent or their therapeutic use.
• Increasinlgy found in literature.
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• It should be noted that the constituents of any drug may have more
than one pharmacological action, as a result, this drug can fall into
different pharmacological groups.

5. Chemical or biogenetic:

• According to the most important group of constituents available such

as: alkaloids, glycosides, volatile oils… etc or biosynthetic pathways.
• Adopted when pharmacognosy is studied in a phytochemical point of
view.
• DISADVANTAGE: ambiguities when drugs have a number of active
constituents belonging to various phytochemical groups.

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Drugs
• Definition: substances, whether natural or
synthetic, having therapeutic or medicinal
properties and chiefly used as medicines or as
ingredients in medicines.
• We have either vegetable drug or animal
drug.

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 Crude drugs
• Crude drugs: are vegetable or animal drugs
which consist of natural substances that have
undergone no other processes than collection
and drying and what ever is necessary to keep
it in a good condition.

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Advanced crude drug

• Advanced crude drug: As used in relation to
natural products, means any product which
has been advanced in value or improved in
condition from its crude state by any
mechanical or physical process by shredding,
grinding, chipping, crushing, but not artificial
mixing with other substances.

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 Derivatives or extractives
• Derivatives or extractives: Only infrequently
crude drugs are used as such as therapeutic
agents, more often their chief principles are
separated by various means and are employed
in a more specific manner.
• These principles are known as derivatives or
extractives which could be single or mixture of
substances, and it is considered as the chief
constituent.
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Extraction
Extraction: The process of extraction is a generally
accepted method of
the active constituents.
• Extraction will remove only those substances which can be
dissolved in the liquid known as solvent.
• The undissolved portion of the drug that remains after the
extraction process is completed is known as the marc.
• The product of the extraction process is known as the
extractive and is usually a mixture of substances.
• Usually drugs are grinded before extraction to decrease
particle size and increase surface area available
for solvent to extract the material, and hence
increasing the efficiency of extraction.
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 Types of extracts
• Dry extract: all the solvent has been removed.
• Soft extract: contains 15-25% residual water.
• Fluid extract: one part of the crude drug is contained
in one or two parts of the extract.
{a liquid preparation, containing alcohol , or other liquids,
as a solvent or as a preservative, that contains in each cubic
centimeter (ml) the medicinal activity of one gram of the
crude drug.}
• Tincture: is prepared by extraction of the crude drug
with 5 to 10 parts of ethanol of varying
concentration, without concentration of the final
products.
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Choice of solvents
The ideal solvent for a certain pharmacologically active
constituents should:
1. Be highly selective for the compound to be extracted.
2. Have a high capacity for extraction in terms of
coefficient of saturation of the compound in the
medium.
3. Not react with the extracted compound or with other
compounds in the plant material.
4. Have a low price.
5. Be harmless to man and to the environment.
6. Be completely volatile.

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 Types of solvent
The following list contains the names of solvents
arranged from low to high polarity.
• Petroleum ether
• Cyclohexane
• CCl4 (Tetrachlormethane)
• Benzene
• CHCl3 (Chloroform)
Polarity increases
• Ethylic ether in this direction
• Acetone
• n-butanol
• Methanol
• Water
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Geographic source or habitat

• Is the region in which the plant or animal yielding the
drug grows.
• Drugs are collected in all parts of the world, though
the tropic and subtropics yield more drugs than do
the arctic and subarctic e.g. Asia Minor (Anatolia)
yields more drugs than any other region in the world.
• Coconut

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 Indigenous plants
• Indigenous plants: plants growing in their native
countries are said to be indigenous to those regions
for example Aconitum napellus in the
mountains of Europe.

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Naturalized Plants

• Plants growing in a foreign land or in a locality

other than their native homes, as Datura
stramonium which has been introduced into the
United States from Europe.

• Some of these plants may have been introduced

with the seeds of cultivated plants, some by birds or
ocean currents.
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 Cultivation
Cultivated medicinal plants have been propagated in
China, India and Europe, for example Cinchona:
native to the South American Andes, was developed
as a crop in Indonesia.

Extensive cultivation of certain medicinal plants is

conducted in specific geographical regions which is
suitable for those drugs, for example in 1950’s, a
fungus blight invaded the fields of
peppermint in Michigan and within few years it was
considered uneconomical to attempt further
cultivation. 23

Cultivation
It is important that when plants are cultivated in
a certain geographical area to ascertain that
they will develop the desired type and amount
of active constituents.
For example Ammi visnaga growing
wild in the Mediterranean area contains a
variety of coumarins and chromones in its
seeds, when this plant was cultivated in
Arizona, the seeds were devoid of the desired
constituents.
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 Ammi visnaga

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Advantages of cultivation over collection from the wild:

1. Soil, shade, moisture and plant disease are all readily
controlled for the optimum development of the plants.
2. Easier harvesting as plants are almost in the same
stage of growth, and exist in smaller areas,
consequently, it is made easier to deal with the plants.
3. Quick and efficient drying which yields almost
unchanged active ingredients.
4. Extraction of the desired constituents can be done
directly in association with cultivation, e.g. essential oil
production.
5. Cultivation can be combined with plant breeding to
yield higher amounts of active constituents.

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 Commerce in Drugs
The commercial origin of a drug refers to its
production and its channels of trade. Before
1925, London and Amsterdam were the
primary markets for drugs.

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Factors involved in production of

drugs
Extrinsic factors
• The crude drug which finally reaches the
pharmaceutical manufacturing line will have passed
through various stages, all of which can influence
the nature and amount of active constituents
present (quality & quantity).
• These aspects will be considered under the
headings: climate, cultivated and wild plants,
collection, drying and storage.
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 Climate
1. Plant growth and development, and often the nature
and quantity of secondary metabolites, are effected by
temperature, rainfall, length of day (including the quality
of light) and altitude.

 Such effects have been studied by growing particular

plants in different climatic areas and observing variations.

 Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) is an example of

the plant grows well in other areas other than its normal
habitat (temperate and subtropical climate; Turkey,
Bulkans, Mediterranean countries). It gave almost the
same quantity and quality of the active constituents
(alkaloids) when grown in the nordic areas [successful
cultivation].
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Temperature
2. Temperature is a major factor controlling the
development and metabolism of plants. Although
each species has become adapted to its own natural
environment, plants are frequently able to exist in a
considerable range of temperature.
 Night and day temperature must also be considered.
For example, the formation of v. oils appears to be
enhanced at higher temperature, although very hot days
may lead to an excess physical loss of oil (2-side
weapon).
 Several authors have indicated that fixed oils
produced at low temperatures contain fatty acids with a
higher content of double bonds than those formed at
higher temperature. 30

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 Rainfall
3.The important effects of rainfall on vegetation need to
be considered in relation to the annual rainfall, its
distribution throughout the year, its effect on humidity
and its effect coupled with the water-holding properties
of the soil.
 Variable results have been reported for the production
of v. oil, which is coupled with development of
glandular hair.
 Continuous rain can lead to a loss of water-soluble
substances from leaves and roots by leaching, which
results in low yield of active constituents.
31

• Short-term drought has been noticed to increase

sennosides A and B in senna (Cassia angustifolia).
• Where, long-term drought resulted in the loss of leaf
biomass (withered away).

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 Day Length
4. Plants vary much in both the amount and intensity of the
light which they require. In the wild state. plant will be
found where its shade requirements are met.
 In case of cultivation, similar shade conditions must be
provided.
 Research shown that light is a factor which helps
determine amount of glycosides, alkaloids; they increase
with increase in day length (as in Cinchona ledgeriana,
and an increase of hyoscine has been noticed in Datura
stramonium upon exposure to intense light).
 Also, peppermint leaves produce v. oil rich with menthol
with longer day light, while it is rich in other component
with shorter day light. 33

Altitude
5. Altitude: The coconut palm needs a maritime (marine)
climate and the sugar cane is a low-land plant.
 Some active constituents of medicinal plants either increase or
decrease with high attitude, for example, medicinal rhubarb,
tragacanth and cinchona require elevation (high atitude).
 Cinchona grows well at low levels but produce no alkaloids.
 The bitter constituents of Gentiana lutea increase
with altitude, whereas, the alkaloids of Aconitum napellus and
Lobelia inflata and the oil content of thyme and peppermint
decrease.
 Pyrethrum gives the best yields of flower-heads and pyrethrin at
high altitudes near the Equator, consequently, it is produced in
East Africa and north-west South America. 34

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 Lobelia inflata

Gentiana lutea

Equator

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Wild and Cultivated Plants

Certain drugs are now almost exclusively from
cultivated plants, for example cardamoms, ginger,
fennel, opium.
In other cases, both wild and cultivated plants are
used.
 Some plants have been cultivated from immemorial
time; others are now grown because supplies of
the wilds plants are insufficient to meet the demand.
Cultivation is essential in the case of drugs such as
Indian hemp and opium, which are subject to
government control, and in many cases it is advisable
because of the improved quality of the drugs which is
possible to produce. 36

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 Wild and Cultivated Plants

So, reasons (justifications) of cultivation may be

summarized as follows:
1. When supplies from wild plants are insufficient.
2. In case of controlled drugs such as hemp and opium
that are submitted to governmental control to
minimize or prevent abuse.
3. To produce drugs with higher quality and quantity.

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Reasons of improved qulaity of

cultivated plants over wild ones
1. The possibility to confine collection to certain species,
varieties or hybrids with desired phytochemical characters
(e.g. aconite, cinamon, fennel, cinchona, … etc.).
2. The better development of the plants owing to improved
conditions of the soil, pruning (clipping) and the control
of insects and fungi, etc.
3. The better facilities for treatment after collection, for
example, drying at a correct temperature in cases of digitalis,
colchicum, belladonna and valerian
(sedative, antiseptic, anticonvulsant, migraine
treatment, and pain reliever).
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 Valerian & colchicum

Red valerian

Colchicum 39

OFFICIAL AND UNOFFICIAL DRUGS

• Drugs of therapeutic value are standardized in
the national pharmacopeias, each 5 years.
• Between versions, supplements are issued.
• The pharmacopoeia nowadays includes the
descriptive material pertaining (belonging) to
any of the drugs or preparations.
• This descriptive material is also included in the
national formulary .
• This is known as the monograph [a detailed
written study of a single specialized subject].
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 Official drugs
• The drugs that meat the requirements of the
National formulary and described in the
current pharmacopeias are called official.

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Official drugs
• The drugs that meat the requirements of the
National formulary and described in the
current pharmacopeias are called official.

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 Unofficial drugs

• Substances that have been recognized in

the pharmacopeias or in the formulary but
are not presently found in the current
issues are designated as unofficial.

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Unofficial and non-official drugs

• Substances that have been recognized in
the pharmacopeias or in the formulary but
are not presently found in the current
issues are designated as unofficial.
• Substances that have never appeared in
either book may be called non-official.

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 Monograph
[a detailed written study of a single specialized subject]
In the monograph of a crude drug, the following
information may be provided
1. Official title
2. Category
3. Dose
4. Definition
5. Description
6. Identity tests
7. Tests for adulterants
8. Method of assay
9. Packaging and storage
10. Tests for foreign organic matter. 45

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