Introduction to

Pharmacognosy

Mr. Renato I. Dalmacio, RPh, MSPharm.

Pharmacognosy with Plant Chemistry

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Animism

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Egyptians (Ebers papyrus, 1550 BC)

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 Authors of Antiquity
Hippocrates (460-377 BC)
“The Father of Medicine”

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 Dioscorides (40-80 AD)
“De Materia Medica” (600 medicinal plants)

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The era of European exploration
overseas (16th and 17th century)

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 Fluckiger
u Stated that pharmacognosy is the
simultaneous application of various
scientific disciplines with the object
of acquiring knowledge of drugs from
every point of view

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 Trease and Evans
u Applied in biotechnology

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 The era of pure compounds
(In 1803, a new era in the history of medicine)

u Isolation of morphine from opium

u Strychnine (1817)

u Quinine and caffeine (1820)

u Nicotine (1828)

u Atropine (1833)

u Cocaine (1855)
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 Pharmacognosy
u ‘Pharmakon’- drug
u ‘gnosis’ – knowledge

u ***firstcoined by J.A. Schmidt;

Venia; 1811
u Introduced by C.A. Seydler in his
work Analecta Pharmacognostica
(1815)
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 Pharmacognosy
u Defined as “an applied science that
deals with the biologic, biochemical,
and economic features of natural
drugs and their constituents”

u Itis a study of drugs that originate in

the plant and animal kingdoms

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 Pharmacognosy
u Embraces a knowledge of the
history, distribution, cultivation,
collection, selection, preparation,
commerce, identification, evaluation,
preservation and use of drugs and
economic substances that affect the
health of humans and other animals

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u Ethnobotany:
It is a broad term referring to the study of
plants by humans

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u Ethnomedicine:
It refers to the use of plants by
humans as medicine

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u Traditionalmedicine:
It is the sum total of all non-
mainstream medical practices,
usually excluding so called “western”
medicine

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 Definitions and Basic Principles
u Pharmacopoeia : is a
book containing directions
for the identification of
samples and the
preparation of compound
medicines and publishing
by the authority of a
government or medical or
pharmaceutical society

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u Drug Biosynthesis or Biogenesis:
study of biochemical pathways
leading to the formation of secondary
constituents used as drugs

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DRUG BIOSYNTHESIS

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u Drug : is a natural or synthetic
substance used in the treatment ,
cure , prevention , or diagnosis of
disease or used to otherwise
enhance physical or mental well
being .

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u Crude Drugs : are vegetable or
animal drugs that consist of natural
substances that have undergone only
the processes of collection and
drying

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u Extractives ( derivatives ) : This
term deals with the principle
constituents that found in natural
substances by many methods like (
Extraction , distillation …….etc .)

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u Active Constituents: compounds
that are responsible for therapeutic
effect
u Either single chemical
substances (glycosides, terpenoids,
steroids, alkaloids);
u mixture of principles (gums, fixed
oils, fats, resins)

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 Is this a single chemical
substance or a mixture of
principles?

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u Natural product : is a chemical
compound or substance produced by
a living organism found in nature
that usually has a pharmacological or
biological activity for use in
pharmaceutical drug discovery &
drug design .

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u Natural products can be:
1. Entire organism (plant, animal, organism)
2. Part of an organism (a leaf or flower of a
plant, an isolated gland or other organ of
an animal)

3. An extract or an exudate of an organism

4. Isolated pure compounds

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Natural Products in the market

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Types of drugs derived from plants

1. Herbal drugs, derived from specific

parts of a medicinal plant

2. Compounds isolated from nature

3. Nutraceuticals, or “functional foods”

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 Value of natural products
u Compounds from natural sources play four
significant roles in modern medicine:

1. They provide a number of extremely

useful drugs that are difficult, if not
impossible, to produce commercially by
synthetic means

2. Natural sources also supply basic

compounds that may be modified slightly
to render them more effective or less toxic

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3. Their utility as prototypes or models for synthetic
drugs possessing physiologic activities similar to
the originals
H3C COOH
COOH COOH
Ibuprofen
HO H3 C O

Salicylic Acid Aspirin

CH3

CH3
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4. Some natural products contain
compounds that demonstrate little or
no activity themselves but which can
be modified by chemical or biological
methods to produce potent drugs not
easily obtained by other methods

Baccatin III ® Taxol

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 Taxonomy
u It is the science of naming organisms
and their correct integration into the
existing system of nomenclature

u The names of species are given in

binomial form: the first part of the
name indicates the wider taxonomic
group, the genus; the second part of
the name is the species.
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 Papaver somniferum L.
u Species: somniferum, here meaning ‘sleep-
producing’
u Genus: Papaver (a group of species, in
this case poppies, which are
closely related)
u Family: Papaveraceae (a group of genera
sharing certain traits)
u L.: indicates the botanist who provided the
first scientific description of the species
and who assigned the botanical name
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 Preparation of Crude Drugs
u 1. Collection
u 2. Harvesting
u 3. Drying
u 4. Curing
u 5. Garbling
u 6. Packaging

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 1. Collection

u Collection
of drugs from cultivated
plants always ensures a true natural
source and a reliable product

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 2. Harvesting
u Proper time of harvesting or
collecting is particularly important
because the nature and quantity of
constituents vary greatly in some
species according to the season

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2. Harvesting
u Whichis better,
Mechanical
means or Hand
labor?

u ANSWER:

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 3. Drying
u One removes
the sufficient
moisture to
ensure good
keeping
qualities and to
prevent
molding

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What other
importance of Drying u ANSWER:
can you think of?

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 4. Curing
u Modified drying method
u To enhance the property of active
plant constituent

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 5. Garbling
u Isthe final step in the preparation of
a crude drug. It consists of the
removal of extraneous matter, such
as dirt.

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 6. Packaging
u Thepackaging of drugs
depends on their final
disposition.

u Thestandard package for all

grades of aloe is a 55-gallon
steel drum, and this type of
container is also employs for
balsam peru 42
Evaluation of a drug involves a
number of methods that may be
classified as follows
u 1. Organoleptic
u 2. Microscopic
u 3. Biologic
u 4. Chemical
u 5. Physical

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 1. Organoleptic
Refers to evaluation by means of the
organs of sense and includes the
macroscopic appearance of the drug

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 2. Microscopic
u Tostudy the adulterants in powdered
plant and animal drugs but also in
indispensable in the identification of
the pure powdered drug

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 3. Biologic
u Assays on living animals as well as
on intact or excised organs

u Give the strength of the preparation

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 4. Chemical
u Best method in determining the
official potency

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 5. Physical
u Application of physical constants

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Analysis of Vegetable & Animal
Drugs
u Analytical Pharmacognosy

u Purity

u Quality

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 Drug Adulteration
-It is the basement of any article
which involves a number of different
conditions

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 Different Conditions of
Adulteration
• Inferiority

• Spoilage

• Deterioration

• Admixture

• Sophistication

• Substitution
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 Classification of Drugs
In Pharmacognosy, drugs maybe
classified according to:

1. Their morphology
2. The taxonomy of the plants and
animals from which they are obtained
3. Their therapeutic application
4. Their chemical constituents
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Geographic source and Habitat
ØThe region in which the plant or animal
yielding the drug grows.

u INDIGENOUS

u NATURALIZED

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