Pharmacognosy

Melkamu Argeta (B.Pharm)

Outline:

Definition, History and scope of Pharmacognosy

Crude drugs

Steps in the scientific analysis of drugs from natural resources

Identification of classes of compounds found in the plant

Isolation of active compounds

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Definition of Pharmacognosy
• The word Pharmacognosy is derived from the Greek
• "Pharmakon", meaning a drug or poison
• “gignosco" meaning to acquire a knowledge of
• “cognosco” to know about’ (Latin)
• literally meaning “the entire knowledge of drug”
• Pharmacognosy can be defined as branch of science which involves
detail study of drugs obtained from natural origin including name, habitat,
collection, cultivation, macroscopy, microscopy, physical properties,
chemical constituents, therapeutic actions, uses and adulterants.

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Pharmacognosy…
• The term ‘Pharmacognosy’ was first coined by Prof.
Johann Adam Schmidt (1759–1809) in his hand-written
manuscript Lehrbuch der Materia Medica, which was
later published in Vienna in 1811.

• Shortly after the above publication, ‘Pharmacognosy’

appears again in 1815 in a small work by Chr. Aenotheus
Seydler entitled Analecta Pharmacognostica

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Pharmacognosy…

• Pharmacognosy is interdisciplinary, illustration on a broad

spectrum of biological and socio-scientific subjects, including:
• Botany, ethnobotany, medical anthropology, marine biology,
microbiology, herbal medicine, chemistry, biotechnology, phytochemistry,
pharmacology, pharmaceutics, clinical pharmacy and pharmacy practice.

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Pharmacognosy…
• The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines Pharmacognosy as:
• “The study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological
properties of drugs, drug substances or potential drugs or drug
substances of natural origin as well as the search for new drugs
from natural source”

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Pharmacognosy…
• The scientific study of the structural, physical, chemical and sensory
characters of crude drugs of vegetable, animal and mineral origin.
• Includes also their history, cultivation, collection and Storage of the
medicinal plants

• Recently it includes:
• Modern isolation techniques.
• Pharmacological testing procedures to prepare purified substances.
• Cultivation and propagation by tissue culture.

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Related terms
• Ethnobotany: It is a broad term referring to the study of plants by
humans.
• Ethnomedicine: It refers to the use of plants by humans as medicine.
• Traditional medicine: It is the sum total of all nonmainstream medical
practices, usually excluding so called “western” medicine.
• Phytochemistry: deals with the chemistry knowledge of natural
products from plant origin exhibiting bioactivity.
• Phytotherapy: It is the study of the use of extracts from natural origin
as medicines or health-promoting agents.

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Phytochemistry
• Three primary roles of phytochemistry:
• Drug discovery
• Establishing the rationale for the successful employment of crude plant
extracts in disease treatment
• Development of plants as
• Chemopreventive, nutritional and functional medicine.

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Why do we study Pharmacognosy?
• They provide a number of extremely useful drugs that are
difficult, if not impossible, to produce commercially by synthetic
means.
• ~25% of drugs in use today are derived from natural products.
• In certain therapeutic areas, the impact is even higher,
• e.g., anti-cancer (74%) and anti-bacterial (78%)

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Examples…
• Digitalis purpurea (Foxglove) and Digitalis lanata …
• long known for their healthy heart effects exert a positive inotropic effect on
cardiac muscles – treatment for heart failure

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 Examples…

• Quinidine …bark of Cinchona tree …… antiarrhythmic drug

• Quinine … no cardiac activity … anti-infective … malaria

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 History of Pharmacognosy
• The history of pharmacognosy is as old as human existence.
• To know the future one should know the past.
• The word ‘drug’ is derived from Latin term Droog means dried, when dried plants were
commonly used as medicine.
• Broadly, history of pharmacognosy can be classified into three major stages.
• First stage before eighteenth century, very few documents and recorded evidences
are available showing use of natural products by human.
• Second stage involves nineteenth century: the time when basic subject has
evolved.
• In this century, the name pharmacognosy came into practice.
• Initially the subject was more likely to descriptive botany of medicinal plants.
• But as the time progress, it changes the course and encompasses extraction,
isolation and other advances techniques.
• Third stage of development, twentieth century, considered as series of
discoveries resulted in complete transformation of the subject.
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History of Pharmacognosy…
• In eighteenth century, pharmacognosy was much closely related to botany.
• In old days, drugs from natural origin were used in crude form as powder or
decoction.
• Later in nineteenth century, development in science has expanded arena of
pharmacognosy.
• Now a day’s pharmacognosy has become a kind of multidisciplinary subject
which embarrasses phytochemistry, analytical pharmacognosy,
pharmacotherapy, medicinal plant biotechnology, herbal formulations and
nutraceuticals.
• Zoopharmacognosy is branch of pharmacognosy which involves observation of
animal behavior for discovery and development of new drugs.
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 History of Pharmacognosy…
• Pharmacognosy is the oldest of all pharmacy sciences
• Originally during the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century
“Pharmacognosy" was used to define the branch of medicine or commodity
sciences which deals with drugs in their crude, or unprepared form of a drug.
• The study of these materials under the name pharmakognosie was first developed in
German-speaking areas of Europe.
• while other language areas often used the older term materia medica taken from the
works of Galen and Dioscorides.
• In German the term drogenkunde ("science of crude drugs") is also used synonymously.
• Knowledge about drugs was acquired through different means
• Experience, Migration, Divine power

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History of Pharmacognosy… Documentations
• References from antiquity to the drug trade are rare,
• Although some mural (wall painting) inscriptions from Ancient Egypt,
dating back to 3000 BC, evidence knowledge of the effect of
medicinal plants.
• The ancient Egyptians documented their knowledge about medicine
on paper made from Cyperusaquaticus commonly called acquatic sage
or papyrus.
• Papyrus Ebers (around 1500 BC), Berlin Papyrus, Edwin Smith Paprus,
KahunMedicak Papyrus are some of the oldest handbooks which contain
information of illness and treatments.
• Ancient India, information about drugs was documented in several
Ayurvedic texts which still exist
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 History of Pharmacognosy…
1. Mesopotamia (1700 BC)
• The geographical region which lies near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Sumerians-
origin of the 1st Civilization)
• The Code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian legal text composed c. 1755–1750 BC.
• It is the longest, best-organised, and best-preserved legal text from the ancient Near East
.
• It is written in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, supposedly by Hammurabi, sixth
king of the First Dynasty of Babylon.

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 History of Pharmacognosy…
2. Ancient Egyptian period -1550 BC
• The ancient Egyptians were experts in using drugs for curing diseases.
• The healing of the sick was undertaken by priest - doctor and pharmacist
- "Son" who prescribed and prepared medicines.
• Crude drugs of vegetable origin used included Aloes, Gum, Myrrh,
Poppy, Pomegranate, Colocynth, Linseed, Squill, Coriander, Onion,
Anise, Melon, Castor, etc...
• The first recorded prescriptions were found in Egyptian tombs.
• These were the Hieratic papyri, Ebers papyrus, the Gynecologic
papyrus.

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History of Pharmacognosy…
3. The Babylonians
• The Babylonian medicine was known (Laws of Hamorabi 772 B.C.).
• The drugs used were mainly of vegetable origin.
• The drugs used include 250 materials of plant, and 180 materials of animal
source.
• Many of these drugs were known to the ancient Egyptians.
• In the British Museum, clay tablets from the library of King Ashurbanipal (668–
626 BC) of Assyria suggest that, the Sumerians had a form of Herbal preparation
for diseases treatment.
• By 660 BC, around 250 drugs were recognized by the Assyrians themselves,
some of which were actively cultivated.

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History of Pharmacognosy…
4. Old Indian medicine
• The "Riveda" and Ayurveda (Acoko 2000 B.C.), contained the sacred
medicinal plants.
• The collection of plant materials was done only by an innocent, pure,
religious person.
• The fresh plants were considered to be the most effective.
• The most celebrated Indian drugs were; Sandal wood, Clove, Pepper,
Cardamom, Caraway, Ginger, Benzoin, Cannabis, Castor oil, Sesame
oil, Aloes, etc...

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History of Pharmacognosy…
5. The old Chinese medicine
• Beside the famous acupuncture, the Chinese medicine is very
acknowledged for the herbal medicine.

• The Pen Ts'ao Kang Moa 1000 B.C. contained 1892 drugs medicinal
plants and drugs of animal origin.

• Their book includes many recipes for every disease.

• Among the plants include: power were; Ginseng, Rhubarb, Ephedra, Star
Anise, Pomegranate, Aconite....
• Opium is a very old Chinese drug for diarrhea and dysentery.
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History of Pharmacognosy…
6. The Greek and Romans
• Pythagoras (560 B.C.) used drugs such as Mustard and Squill, etc....
• Hippocrates (466 - 437 B.C.) was familiar with numerous drugs and
wrote "Corpus Hipocraticum 460 B.C.".
• “Father of medicine” and might have been the 1st “nature doctor”
• He used the simple natural remedies, vinegar, honey and hydrotherapy in
healing, he is also considered as the entire school of “rational” or “scientific”
medicine

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History of Pharmacognosy…
6. The Greek and Romans
• The Greek Empire was followed by that of the Romans
• Dioscorides who was a Greek by birth he was the first to describe drugs
• Dioscorides (40 – 80 A.D.) wrote De Materia Medica, about 600 plants were described.
• Eg. Belladona, ergot, Hyoscyamus
• Pliny who lived about the same time as Dioscorides, was also an eminent author
of natural history.
• The largest compilation on plants
• Galen (134- 200 A.C.) was a physician and he attributed the use of "Galenical
preparations“
• Principles of preparing and compounding of medicines
• Originator of the formula for a cold cream

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History of Pharmacognosy…
7. Islamic Contribution
• In Islamic writings were found the first beginnings of
chemistry, the name of which is derived from an Arabic word
"Kemia"; as were also such familiar words alcohol and alkali.
• The Arabs added numerous new plants and medicaments to
those already known to the Greeks and Romans.
• In their days, pharmacy attained its highest reputation and
became an independent branch of medicine.

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 History of Pharmacognosy…
7. Islamic Contribution…
• It is interesting to note that the first dispensary was opened in
Baghdad, the center of trade in those days.

• The dispensary was made of Sandal wood and named

"Sandalia".

• Rhazey (850-932 A.C.) who was born at Rai in Persia was the
director of Baghdad hospital in the days of El-Mansour.
• He published a famous book "Alhawi Kabeer".
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History of Pharmacognosy…
The 18th century, Pharmacognosy
• Johann Adam (1759-1809)
• Linnaeus (naming and classifying plants)
• At the end of the 18th century, crude drugs were still being used as powders,
simple extracts, or tinctures
• The era of pure compounds
• (In 1803, a new era in the history of medicine)
– Isolation of morphine from opium
– Strychnine (1817)
– Quinine and caffeine (1820)
– Nicotine (1828)
– Atropine (1833)
– Cocaine 1855)
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Scope of Pharmacognosy
• Pharmacognosy is critical in development of different
disciplines of science.
• A pharmacognosist should possess a sound knowledge of the
terms used to describe the vegetable and animal drugs as
covered under botany and zoology, respectively.
• The knowledge of plant taxonomy, plant breeding, plant
pathology and plant genetics is helpful in the development of
cultivation technology for medicinal and aromatic plants.

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Scope of Pharmacognosy…
• Plant - chemistry (phytochemistry) has undergone
significant development in recent years as a distinct
discipline.
• It is concerned with the enormous variety of substances that
are synthesized and accumulated by plants and the structural
elucidation of these substances.
• Extraction, isolation, purification and characterization of
phytochemicals from natural sources are important for
advancement of medicine system.
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Scope of Pharmacognosy…
• The knowledge of chemotaxonomy, biogenetic pathways for
formation of medicinally active primary and secondary
metabolites, plant tissue culture and other related fields is
essential for complete understanding of Pharmacognosy.

• One should have the basic knowledge of biochemistry and

chemical engineering is essential for development of
collection, processing and storage technology of crude drugs.

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Scope of Pharmacognosy…
1. Pharmacognosy is important branch of pharmacy which is playing key
role in new drug discovery and development by using natural products.
• Pharmacognosy has given many leads for new drug discovery and development.

2. It is an important link between modern medicine systems (allopathy)

and traditional system of medicine.
• It is part medicinal system which is affordable as well as accessible to common
man.
• As part of integrative system of medicine, pharmacognosy can help to increase
effectiveness of modern medicine system.

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Scope of Pharmacognosy…
3. It is acting as bridge between pharmacology, medicinal chemistry
and pharmacotherapeutics and also pharmaceutics.
4. More than 60 percent of world population is still using natural
product for their primary healthcare needs.
• Pharmacognosy can provide safe and effective drugs in combination
with modern medicine system.
5. Pharmacognosy is the base for development of novel medicines.
• Most of the compounds obtained from natural product serve as prototype or
base for development of new drug which are more active and less toxic.

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Scope of Pharmacognosy…
6. By means of pharmacognosy, natural products can be dispensed,
formulated and
manufactured in dosage forms acceptable to modern system of
medicine.

7. There are vast number of plant and animal species which are not
studied systematically.

8. Development of pharmacognosy also leads to development of botany,

taxonomy, plant biotechnology, plant genetics, plant pathology,
pharmaceutics, pharmacology, phytochemistry and other branches of
science.
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Scope of Pharmacognosy
• The scope of pharmacognosy includes:-
• Preparation and evaluation of natural drugs
• Knowing history of natural products
• Studying natural pharmaceutical excipients(flavors and colors)
• Identification or authentication of crude drugs (using
microscopically, or chemical methods),
• Assessing their bio-pharmacological and clinical evaluations.

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Scope of Pharmacognosy…
• Securing regular supply of natural products
– Cultivation
– increasing yield using medicinal plant biotechnology
– development of lead molecules for the synthetic medicinal

• Incorporation of a natural product in the system of modern

medicine
• Development of herbal medicine

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Scope of Pharmacognosy…
• In addition, materials having no pharmacological action which
are of interest to pharmacognosists are:
– natural fibres,
– flavouring
– suspending agents,
– colourants,
– disintegrants,
– stabilizers and
– filtering and support media.

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Function of Pharmacognosist…
• Identification of the drug sources
• Determination of the morphological character
• Investigation of potency, purity, and admixture
• Planning and designing of the cultivation of medicinal plants
• Prescription of the detail processes of collection, drying and
preservation
• Knowledge about active constituents, chemical nature and
uses
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Pharmaceutical Botany
• Botanical drug is a product that is either: derived from a plant and
transformed into a drug by drying certain plant parts or the whole plant
• Obtained from a plant, but no longer retains the structure of the plant or its
organs,
• Contains a complex mixture of biogenic compounds
• (e.g. fatty and essential oils, gums, resins, balms) isolated pure natural
products are thus not “botanical drugs”, but rather chemically defined
drugs derived from nature

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Pharmacognosy & Taxonomy
• Taxonomy is the subject to identify the plants
• It is the science of naming organisms and their correct
integration into the existing system of nomenclature

• Pharmacognosy is a subject to identify or authenticate the plant

parts using macroscopical, anatomical and phytochemical
characters.

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Definitions
Drug:- any substances that is:
• Recognized in the pharmacopeia
• Used for diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of disease in human or animal.
• Affect the structure or function of human or animal and
• Substances of natural or synthetic origin having therapeutic or medicinal
properties and chiefly used as medicines or ingredients in the medicine.
• Crude Drug:- is any naturally occurring, unrefined substance derived
from organic or inorganic sources such as plant, animal, bacteria, organs
or whole organisms intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation,
treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals.
Crude drugs are vegetable or animal drugs which consist of natural
substances that have undergone no other processes than collection and
drying.
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Crude Drug…
• It is used for those natural products such as plants or part of plants,
extracts and exudates which are not pure compounds and used in
medicine.
• The term crude drug generally applies to the products from plant
and animal origin found in a raw form.
• However, the term is also applied to include pharmaceutical products from
mineral kingdom in original form and not necessarily only of organic origin
such as kaolin, bentonite etc.

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 Examples of crude drugs
1. Animal Drugs
• Are collected from wild or domestic animals
• Drugs such as lard, lanolin, and milk products, as well as hormones, endocrine
products, and some enzymes are obtained from domesticated hogs, sheep or cattle.
• Processing and purification of animal drugs varies with the individual drugs.
a. Entire animals
 Cantharides: dried beatles of Lytta vescatoria and the active constituent
cantharidine anhydride of dibasic acid cantheric acid. Used as irritant
rubefacient.
 Cochineal: obtained from dried female insect of D.coccus.: The active principle is
carminic acid…coloring agent in tooth paste.

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b. Animal products
 Musk: dried, distilled product of gland musk deer. Active constituent is
volatile muskone used as fixative in perfumes.
 Thyroid: dried cleaned powdered thyroid gland. Mainly from ox. Used as
treatment of goiter and obesity.
 Pepsin: obtained from glandular layer of fresh hog used as protein digestion.

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Examples of crude drugs…
2. Vegetable Drugs
• Plant drugs are collected from wild or cultivated plants;
• The plants could belong to higher or lower plants but the flowering
plants taking the largest share.

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Nomenclature of Crude Drugs
• Common, vernacular or local names
• Scientific names
• more appropriate for exchange of information
• Avoid ambiguity
• The binomial system
• Due to Swedish biologist Linnaus
• In this system the first name, which is always spelt with Capital letter, denotes the genus
• the second name denotes the species.
• It is however, still equally correct to use capital where the species is named after a person
• Example– the species of Cinchona named after Charles Ledger, who brought its
seed from Brazil 1865, is known as Cinchona Ledgeriana

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The binomial system…
• It is the science of naming organisms and their correct
integration into the existing system of nomenclature
• 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.
• Species: somniferum, :- meaning ‘sleep reducing’
• Genus: Papaver (a group of species, poppies)
• Family: Papaveraceae
• (a group of genera sharing certain traits)
• L.: indicates the botanist
• the first scientific description of the species and who assigned the botanical
name
Swedish biologist Linnaus

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• The specific name is usually chosen to indicate:
1. Some striking characteristics of the plant:
• Conium maculatum (maculate = spotted stem with reddish, spotted patches
• Glycyrrhiza glabra (glabrous = smooth). the fruit of this species which look
like a shell.
• Hyoscyamus muticus (muticus = short). the plant being short
• Atropa belladonna (bella = beautiful, donna = lady) the juice of the berry
placed in the eyes causes dilatation of the pupils, thus giving a striking
appearance

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2. A characteristic colour:
• Piper nigrum (= black)
• Veratrum viride (= green)
• Citrus aurantium (= golden yellow)
• Digitalis purpurea (= purple)
• Digitalis lutea (= yellow)
3. An aromatic plant or certain aroma:
• Myritaceae fragrans (having a fragrant, nice aroma)
• Caryophyllus aromaticus (refers to the aroma)

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4. A geographical source or history of a drug:
• Cannabis indica (growing in India)
• Tamarinds indica (India)
5. A Pharmaceutical activity or an active constituents:
• Strychnos nux vomica (from two latin words, nut causing vomiting)
• Ipomoea purga (laxative)
6. A general meaning or a special indication
• Allium sativum (= cultivated)
• Triticum vulgaire (= wild)

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The binomial system…
• The generic name may suggest to also certain characters of the
plant:
• Example
• Atropa, from Atrops, meaning flexile, the name of the Greek fate who cuts
the thread of life, alluding to the poisonous characters of the drugs.
• Glycyrrhiza is from glucose= sweet, riza = root.
• Scientific name is written in italics or is underlined in texts.

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Classification of Crude Drugs
1. Alphabetic
2. Taxonomic
3. Morphological
4. Pharmacological or therapeutic
5. Biogenic/Chemical Classification

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 Classification of Crude Drugs…
1. Alphabetical classification
• Latin/vernacular names
• Advantage
• Quick reference
• There is no repetition of entries and is devoid of confusion.
• In this system location, tracing and addition of drug entries is easy.
• Disadvantage
• no indication of the interrelationships between plants (drugs)
• Used in
• Dictionaries
• Pharmacopoeias
• Examples: Acacia, Benzoin, Cinchona, Dill, Ergot, Fennel, Gentian, Hyoscyamus,
Ipecacuanha, Jalap, Kurchi, Liquorice, Mints, Nuxvomica, Opium, Podophyllum,
Quassia, Rauwolfia, Senna, Vasaka, Wool fat, Yellow bees wax, Zeodary.
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Classification of Crude Drugs…
2. Taxonomic classification
• Plants classified based on their botanical classification
• (Plant) Drugs are arranged according to the plants they are
derived from (class, order, family, genera & species)
• Advantage
• Precise & ordered arrangement (no ambiguity)
• Disadvantage
• Botanical knowledge decreases over the years in students

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 Classification of Crude Drugs…
3. Morphological classifications
• Drugs are arranged according to the morphological or external characters of the plant
parts or animal parts .
• which part of the plant is used as a drug: e. g. leaves, roots, stem etc.
• The drugs obtained from the direct parts of the plants and containing cellular tissues are
called as organized drugs
• E. g. Rhizomes, barks, leaves, fruits, entire plants, hairs and fibres.
• The drugs which are prepared from plants by some intermediate physical processes such
as incision, drying or extraction with or without a solvent and not containing any
cellular plant tissues are called as unorganized drugs.
• Aloe juice, opium latex, agar, gambir, gelatin, tragacanth, benzoin, honey, beeswax,
lemon grass oil etc. are examples of unorganized drugs.

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Difference between organized and unorganized drugs

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Morphological classifications...

• Advantage
• More helpful to identify and detect adulteration.
• More convenient for practical study especially when the chemical nature of
the drug is not clearly understood.
• Disadvantage
• Microscopical studies are needed to identify powdered herbs
• There is no co-relation of chemical constituents with the therapeutic actions. (
main drawback)
• Repetition of drugs or plants occurs.

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Classification of Crude Drugs…
4. Pharmacological/Therapeutic classification
• Plant drugs are grouped according to their pharmacological action of the most
important active constituent in the plant or
• According to the drug’s therapeutic use
• Disadvantage:
• The constituents of one drug may have more than one therapeutic action
(fall into numerous groups)
• E.g. Flavonoids

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Classification of Crude Drugs…
5. Biogenic/Chemical classification
• Drugs are classified according to the main active chemical constituent
available in the plant or
• The biosynthetic pathways of the main active constituent
• Advantage
• Popular for teaching when Pharmacognosy is phytochemically based
• Disadvantage
• Ambiguities
• Plants contain more than one group of active constituents each with
different actions.

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 The Evaluation of Crude Drugs
• It deals with:
• the correct identification of the plant
• determination of the quality & purity
• detection of nature of adulteration
• Reasons for crude drug evaluation
• biochemical variation in the drug
• deterioration due to treatment & storage
• substitution and adulteration
• Identification of the plant
• comparison with authentic or genuine sample
• comparing the published description of the drug with the representative
unknown sample
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Methods of plant identification
• The following methods are widely used in evaluation of Crude drugs
1. Organoleptic (Morphological) Evaluation
2. Microscopic Evaluation
3. Chemical Evaluation
4. Physical Evaluation
5. Biological (Bioassay) Evaluation

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1. Organoleptic (Morphological) evaluation
• Evaluation by means of the organs of sense and includes the
macroscopic appearance of the drug
• Shape and size.
• Colour and external markings
• Fracture and internal colour
• Odor and taste

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 2. Microscopic evaluation
• The leaf constants like:
• stomatal number
• stomatal index
• palisade ratio
• vein islet
• vein termination number

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 3. Chemical evaluation
• It comprises of different chemical test & chemical assays
• Phytochemical screening
• Employed :
For identification of crude drugs
To ascertain purity of drugs
Chemical assay- for both quantitative and qualitative
• Includes chemical test, assay, isolation, purification and identification of
active constituents are chemical methods of evaluation.
• It also includes phytochemical evaluation. (tests for alkaloids, amino
acids, carbohydrates).

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Physical evaluation
i. Foreign Material
• Foreign Organic matter
• Microbial Contamination
• Moisture content.
ii. Ash Value
• Total Ash
• Acid Insoluble Ash
• Sulphated Ash
• Water Soluble Ash
iii. Extractive Values
• Water Soluble extractives
• Ethanol Soluble extractives
• Volatile Oil Determination
iv. Chromatographic Methods
v. Spectroscopic Technique
vi. Physical Parameters (M. Point, B. Point, Refractive index, optical rotation)
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 5. Biological (Bioassay) evaluation
• Includes the quantitative assay of the drugs using biological models of intact
animals, animal preparations, isolated living tissues or microorganisms
• it is less precise, time consuming & more expensive to conduct
• Generally used if:
• The chemical identity of the active principle in not fully elucidated
• If no adequate chemical assay has been derived for the active principle as
incase of insulin
• If the chemical assay is not a valid indication of biological activity
• If the drug is composed of complex mixture and activity.
• E.g. Digitalis,
• If purification of the crude drug is not possible E.g. Separation of vit. D
from irradiated oils
• To measures the actual biological activity of a given sample
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 Adulteration of crude drugs
• Adulteration is the substitution of the original crude drug partially or fully with other substances
which is either free from or inferior in therapeutic and chemical properties.

• Types of Adulteration
• Adulteration with inferior commercial varieties
• Eg: Maricha (Piper nigrum) adulterated by papaya seeds.
• Adulteration by artificially manufactured substitutes.
• Eg: Artificial invert Sugar for Honey
• Adulteration by Exhausted drugs.
• Eg: Clove, Fennel.
• Adulteration by addition of Heavy Metals.
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Types of Preparations from Plants
• Fresh plant
• Crude drugs
• Crude extracts (extractives)
• Fractions
• Solvent fractions
• Class of natural products
• E.g.: flavonoidal, alkaloidal, saponin fraction etc
• Isolated pure compound
• Anemonin for Ranunculus multifidus
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Official and unofficial drugs
• Drugs are either official or unofficial.
• An official drug is one which is listed and described in a book recognized
by the government as the legal authority for standards "Pharmacopoeia" .

• Unofficial drug are substances that have been recognized in either official
pharmacopeias or National Formulary but are not presently found in the
current issues.

• Nonofficial drugs are substances that have never been appeared in either
books.
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Factors Affecting Crude Drug Quality
• The term quality when applied to crude drugs covers a
number of aspects including:
• Correct identity
• Absence of adulterants and contaminates
• Suitable levels of active principles (secondary metabolites)
• These qualities may be influenced at any stage between the
growing of the plant to the consumption point.

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Factors Affecting Crude Drug Quality…
• Plant growth
• Wild plant collection vs Cultivated herbs (ginger, cinnamon & opium)
• Genetics
• Genetic variants of the same species may yield different levels of the same
active constituents.
• Growth conditions
• Climate and weather
• Latitude/Altitude

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Factors Affecting Crude Drug Quality…
• Collection, during collection the quality of crude drugs may be affected by
• Correct identification
• Time of collection:
• Stage of maturity and age e.g. Clove flower bud
• Time of the year
• Time of the day, e.g. Digitalis higher in the afternoon
• Method of collection and Preparation of plant material
• Adulteration- introduction of organic or inorganic material (other than that
specified in the official descriptions of the drug) by human factors.
• Accidental or deliberate
• Deterioration is the name given to a decline in quality of a drug due to the
influence of other living organisms (insects )or physicochemical factors.
• Causes;
• Physicochemical factors e.g. light, oxygen, water
1/1/2023• Biological factors: microbial contaminations, insects and rodents. 79
 Steps in the Scientific Analysis of Drugs from
Natural Resources

Plant Crude Extract Pure Compound Molecular Structure

OH
OH

= H O
OH
O
O
O O
O
H H
OH
OH

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Case study
• When you went to your home town for your summer
vacation, you meet locally known traditional healer and
he/she told you about medicinal plant which is used for the
treatment of malaria by the community. As a pharmacists you
want to study this plant and the scientific justification of the
traditional use of this important medicinal plant. So that this
plant could be a potential source of new drug.
• Discus the Steps for the Scientific Analysis this medicinal plant to
be developed into drug/prodrug.

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Steps of phytochemical screening
1. Selection
2. Collection
3. Botanical identification/ Authentication
4. Literature review on the identified plant
5. Preparation of the plant for extraction
6. Extraction and preliminary chemical test
7. Biological/pharmacological test of the crude extract 
8. Bioactivity-guided fraction and isolation of active constituents

9. Structural elucidation of the isolated active constituent.

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1. Selection of plant material
• Traditional use
• Accidental experience
• Doctrine of signatures
• Random screening
• Literature Information

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2. Collection of plant material
Should consider the:-
• Time
• Distribution
• Part of plant used
• Age of the plant.
Reason:-
• Both the qualitative and quantitative accumulation of the active
constituents of a given medicinal plant depends on the above
mentioned factors.
• The season at which each drug is collected is usually a matter of
considerable importance as the amount and sometimes the nature
of the active constituents is not constant throughout the year.
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 3. Taxonomic identification of the plant
• Identification of the plant can be done by:-
• Consulting a taxonomist or a pharmacognosist
• By comparing the characteristic features of the sample
plant with the reference authentic plant
• By comparing the sample with the characteristic of
another plant mentioned in published monograph
• Need to provide the whole plant at flowering stages
• After the plant has been identified, the authenticated
sample should be kept in the herbarium of the particular
institution for future reference.
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4. Literature survey
• This can be done by searching any work done on your study plant
in published literatures such as scientific journals, books, internet,
etc.
• Importance of literature review:-
• Identification of proper plant to work on
• Knowledge about proper preparation, extraction methods and
appropriate solvent to be used can be obtained.
• Different constituents of the study plant can be known.
• To get update on current knowledge about the plant
• Helps to avoid repetition
• To check consistency of folkloric use
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5. Preparation of the study plant for
extraction
Involves:-
1. Removal of foreign extraneous matters
2. Drying
• Prevents enzymatic hydrolysis of active ingredients
• Prevent attack by molds and bacteria
• Facilitate size reduction or powdering, etc.
• Artificial drying E.g. Oven drying
• Natural drying
• Shade drying and Light drying
3. Size reduction/powdering,
• Expose the plant cells or organelles containing the active
principles for ease access of the solvent thereby
1/1/2023 facilitating extraction. 87
5. Design of appropriate extraction method
• Involve -
• Selection of appropriate solvent
• Selection of appropriate extraction methods
• If the plant under investigation comes from traditional medicine, the
extraction solvent and extraction method that we employ for our
investigation should mimic (be identical or similar to) the one used in
traditional medicine.
• A selection of appropriate method to use depends on nature of the plant
and nature of the active ingredients
• Dry, fresh, stable to heat, etc.
• Water and alcohol are usually solvents used to prepare the traditional
medicine.
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7. Preliminary phytochemical analysis of the crude extract

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8. Checking extracts/ fractions for pharmacological activity

• In-vitro and In-vivo

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 9. Isolation of active compounds and
Structure Determination

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