HISTORY Of PHARMACY

PHARMACY is derived from a greek word, PHARMAKON which means ‘’DRUGS and
PURIFICATION’’. Pharmacy refers to the health care profession that deals with both the fields of
health science as well as chemistry.
DEFINITION;
The branch concerned with art and science of preparing material from natural and synthetic
sourse that can be used for treatment and prevention of diseases.
INTRODUCTION,
Disease continues to trail man since the “Fall of Man” and he has continued to seek ways
of curing them. Early studies show that man used clay, mud, leaves and supernatural means for
alleviating symptoms of various diseases.
CAVEMEN’s ERA,
At very early stage of life when people were living in jungles and caves learned from its
environment birds, animals, water, leaves etc. He applied his knowledge to get soothing effect
and comfort.
ANCIENT TREATMENT METHODS,
1. Empirical medical knowledge

This knowledge of medicine was based on observations and experience and not on scientific
knowledge. This led to the discoveries of liquorice for cough in Babylonia, rhubarb roots as
purgative in China and dried blueberries as anti-diarrhoea in Syria.
2. Roles of demons and spirits in disease
The use of incantations, charms, and herbs in “curing” diseases perceived to be spiritual was
common in ancient practice of medicine. Also, use of foul smelling urine and dungs were
believed to drive away evil spirits.
3. As man’s curiosity grew, he began to link causative and curative agents and came up with the
idea that a symptom of a disease is an indication that a plant or plant part will be effective for
its treatment. It was more psychological than scientific. Examples include worm-like roots for
treating worm infestation, heart-shaped leaves of Melissa for treating heart diseases, yellow
juice of celandine for treating jaundice.

BABALONIAN ERA,
 About 2700 BC, earlieast known record of practice of art of medicine was found in
Babylon, the capital city of babylonia state. People of this era were prectitioners, physicians,
and also pharmacists. Ancient Babylonian methods find counterpart in today's modern
pharmaceutical, medical, and spiritual care of the sick.
CHINESE ERA,
Shen Nung, known as the Father of Chinese medicine (approximately 2695 BC) noted
for tasting 365 herbs and dying from a toxic overdose.
He also wrote the treatise On Herbal Medical Experiment Poisons. This treatise was later
expanded by countless generations of doctors and is a main reason why knowledge of remedial
herbs is so expansive in China.
EGYPT ERA (PAPYRUS EBERS),
The Ebers Papyrus is written in hieratic Egyptian writing and represents the most extensive
and best-preserved record of ancient Egyptian medicine known. The scroll contains some 700
magical formulas and folk remedies. Most of the Egyptian pharmacists were priests who were
either gatherers/preparers of drugs, and “chiefs of fabrication,” or head pharmacists.
TREATISE ON HEART,
 The papyrus contains a "treatise on the heart". It notes that the heart is the center of the
blood supply, with vessels attached for every member of the body. The Egyptians seem to have
known little about the kidneys and made the heart the meeting point of a number of vessels
which carried all the fluids of the body—blood, tears, urine and semen. Mental disorders are
detailed in a chapter of the papyrus called the Book of Hearts.
GREEK ERA,
They refined pharmacy. They took over medicinal knowledge starting with superstitions but
later turned to intellectual and rational use of drugs. During the superstitious era was Asclepius
(Asklepios), a god of healing which had a staff with serpent curling on it. It was believed that
one gets healed when touched with the staff. Hygeia (Asclepius’ daughter) was also believed to
heal by giving one a healing portion to drink from a bowel.
Greek philosophers that contributed to the growth of pharmacy include:
 Theophrastus (about 300 B.C.)– He was a natural scientists, and was called “father of
botany” who covered most aspects of botany. He gave descriptions of plants, made the
classification, plant distribution, propagation, germination, and cultivation.
 Mithridates VI, King of Pontus (about 100 B.C.) – The royal toxicologist who spent his
time studying the art of preventing and counteracting poisoning.
 Hippocrates of Cos – a physician credited for being the first person to see medicine as a
rational science and for writing the Hippocratic Oath. He also postulated the theory of
 the four humors that parallel the four elements – air (blood), water (phlegm), earth
(black bile), fire (yellow bile).
 Galen (130-200 A.D.) –the greatest of all Greek philosophers who taught and practiced
principles of preparing and compounding medicines by mechanical means (galenicals).
 Pedanios Dioscorides – a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of De
Materia Medica (a 5-volume Greek encyclopedia on excellent rules for collection,
storage and use of herbs and related medicinal substances).

In Baghdad the first pharmacies, or drug stores, were established in 754, under the Abbasid
Caliphate during the Islamic Golden Age. By the 9th century, these pharmacies were state-
regulated