Overview of Pharmacy: History, Roles, and Practices

Pharmacy

Derived from Greek word 'Pharmakon' drug or medicine.

Drug

Chemical substance used in the treatment, mitigation (alleviate or ease symptoms), prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being.

Drug Example

Barium sulfate diagnostic agent.

Pharmacist

They are also known as druggists; drug experts.

The Traditional Era (1900-1930)

Formulating and dispensing drugs derived from natural sources.

The Scientific Era (1930-1960)

Patient Care, Clinical Services, Reviewing medications, Providing Drug information.

The Clinical Era (1960-1990)

Pharmacists expected to dispense drug information, warnings, advice, and suggestions to patients.

The Pharmaceutical Care Era (Current Era)

Practice of pharmacy focused on ensuring positive outcomes for drug-related therapies.

Pharmaceutical Care

Involves taking direct responsibility for patients and their disease states, medications, and the management of each in order to improve the outcome for individual patients.

Pharmaceutical Care Benefits

Decreased medication error, Increased patient compliance in medication regimen, Better chronic disease state management, Strong pharmacist-patient relationship, Decreased long-term costs of medical care.

Physician, Dentist, and Veterinarian

May prescribe drugs and be primarily interested in the effects of those drugs on the patient, their therapeutic value, and toxicology.

Nurses

May administer the drug and be concerned with dosage forms, route of administration, and toxic manifestations.

Pharmacists

The only legally granted professionals to handle drugs and to know all about those drugs.

Pharmaceutics

Maneuvering, formulating drugs, compounding them to be taken by the patient.

Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy

Medicinal Chemistry synthesizes compounds to make synthetic medications; Pharmacognosy - From natural resources (e.g. plants).

Pharmacy Practice

To deliver the medication that was compounded in a manner that is acceptable to the patient.

Pharmacology

Right drug, dosage, time, interval, and information.

Mortar & Pestle

An internationally recognized symbol to represent the pharmacy profession.

Rx Symbol

The recipe sign appears at the start of prescriptions, universally accepted as an abbreviation of 'recipe' (Latin for 'take thou').

Bowl of Hygeia

The bowl with a snake coiled around it is called the bowl of Hygeia with the serpent of Epidaurus.

Asclepius

Hygieia's Physician and the God of Healing art. Used erroneously as a symbol for medicine, not Pharmacy.

Caduceus

Two snakes around a winged stick, associated with Hermes, the god of commerce and travelers.

Rod of Asclepius

True symbol of medicine featuring a single snake wrapped around a staff.

Green Greek Cross

Used in Spain, Argentina, France, Poland, United Kingdom, and other countries as a symbol of pharmacies.

Red Stylized 'A'

Used in Germany, Apotheke is the German word for Pharmacy.

Hanging Show

Used in Arab/Asian countries as an indication that you are entering an area selling medicine.

B.C.

Before Christ, or BCE 'before the common (or current) era'.

AD

Anno Domini, Latin for 'in the year of the Lord'.

Shamans

Faith healers whose treatment involves the world of spirits, requiring specialists who understood and could control the spirits.

Ninazu

Lord physician in Mesopotamian mythology.

Ningishrida

Son of Ninazu who carries the staff with a snake around it.

Gula

Goddess of death and healing, patroness of physicians, known as the great lady of physicians.

Asu

Physician priest (empirical healer) who drew upon a large collection of drugs and manipulated them into several dosage forms.

Ashipu

Exorcist and incantation priest (magical healer) who relied on spells and magical stones more than plant materials.

Baru

The seer priest known for wisdom.

Library of Nineveh

Collected by Assyrian King Ashurbanipal in the 17th century BC, containing 32,000 clay tablets.

Cradle of Civilization

Refers to Mesopotamia, providing the earliest known record of the practice of the art of the apothecary.

Shen Nung

Patron Saint/God and Emperor who investigated the medicinal value of several hundred herbs, credited as the father of pharmaceutics.

Pen T-Sao

First Chinese Materia Medica, recording 365 herbal drugs.

Thoth

Inventor of science and medicine and patron of physicians in ancient Egypt.

Imhotep

A mortal of the third millennium BC who was deified in Egypt during Greco-Roman times, known for knowledge of medicinal properties of plants.

Chiefs of Fabrication

Gatherers and preparers of drugs.

Echelon

The one who gathers.

Papyrus Ebers

Best known and most important pharmaceutical record, dating to 1500 BC, containing 800 prescriptions and mentioning 700 drugs.

Ebers Papyrus

An Egyptian medical papyrus of herbal knowledge dating to 1550 BC, purchased by Georg Ebers in 1873-74, currently kept at the library of the University of Leipzig.

House of Life

The place where pharmacy in ancient Egypt was conducted by two or more echelons (pharmacists).

Paleo Pharmacological studies

Attest to the use of medicinal plants in prehistory.

Edwin Smith Papyrus

An ancient Egyptian pharmacological document dating to the 16th century BC.

Vehicles

A body to mix the ingredients, such as beer, wine, milk, and honey.

Pharmakon

In Greek, it means magic spell, remedy, or poison.

Rhizotomoi

A group of experts in medicinal plants before, during, and after the time of Hippocrates.

Hippocrates

Known as the Father of Medicine, he sought a natural basis for disease, its causes, and treatment.

Scientific method

Fundamentals shown by followers of Hippocrates, including observation, classification, and rejection of unsupported theory.

Diocles of Carystus

Considered the source for all Greek pharmacotherapeutic treatises between the time of Theophrastus and Dioscorides.

Theophrastus

The greatest early Greek philosopher and natural scientist, known as the father of botany.

Belladonna

The plant Theophrastus is holding, scientifically known as Atropa belladonna, also called 'Deadly Nightshade.'

Middle Ages

A period from the Fall of Rome to the Fall of Constantinople (400 AD - 1453).

Cladius Galen

A prominent Greek physician whose principles of preparing and compounding medicines ruled for 1,500 years.

Galenicals

Pharmaceuticals compounded by mechanical means, associated with Cladius Galen.

Iodine solution

An example of a galenical preparation.

Potassium permanganate solution

Another example of a galenical preparation.

Hiera Picra

The oldest pharmaceutical compound in existence, a cathartic powder made of aloes and canella bark.

Terra Sigillata

A greasy clay used as an antidote for poisons and other illnesses, formed into large, tablet-like units.

Trademarks

Identification and Source of gaining customers' confidence.

Theriaca

Also known as treacle, was the pharmaceutical par excellence, containing varying number of ingredients, sometimes more than seventy, largely herbal, with opium playing a prominent role.

Mithridates VI, King of Pontus

The royal toxicologist who practiced the art of poisoning and counteracting poisoning, using himself and prisoners as 'guinea pigs' for testing.

Mithridatum

Famed formula of alleged panantidotal powers created by Mithridates VI.

Pedanios Dioscorides

A physician, pharmacologist, and botanist, author of De Materia Medica, a 5-volume encyclopedia about herbal medicine that was widely read for more than 1,500 years.

De Materia Medica

A 5-volume encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances written by Dioscorides.

Ancient India

The region where Acharya Charaka, known as the 'Father of Indian Medicine,' published the Charaka Samhita.

Acharya Charaka

Known as the 'Father of Indian Medicine,' he published the Charaka Samhita, which contains a list of medicinal plants.

Monastic Pharmacy

Developed after the advent of Christianity, where monks cultivated medicinal plants and created traditional Latin compilations.

Antidotaria

Traditional Latin compilation similar to dispensatories, listing drugs.

Receptaria

Traditional Latin compilation that includes modest formularies detailing ingredients of drugs and how they are made.

Contribution of Arabs

The translation of Greek writings about medicine to Arabic, including the works of Galen and Dioscorides.

Hunain ibn-Ishäq

Translated the entire available Hippocratic corpus and works of Galen, Dioscorides, Oribasius, and Paul of Aegina.

Säbür ibn-Sah-l

Compiled a prototype of formularies used today, called al-Agrābādhīn al-Kabir, which included instructions for compounding medications.

Avicenna

A Persian philosopher and physician known for his Canon medicinae, which sought to unify all medical knowledge.

Canon medicinae

A treatise by Avicenna that contained sections on poisons, preparation of medicines, and a long list of medicinal recipes.

Rhazes

A physician who, along with Avicenna, added to the writings of Greek and rejected the idea that foul tasting worked best in medicine.

King Frederick II of Sicily

Codified the separate practice of pharmacy from medicine in mid 13th century (1240).

Damian and Cosmas

Patron saints of pharmacy and medicine, twin brothers of Arabian descent, killed by martyrdom in the year 303.

Modern Europe

Public pharmacies became common in Southern Europe, with writings of Greek translated to Arabic further translated to Latin for European schools.

Paracelsus

Introduced the idea of the body as a chemical process, which became widely applied in pharmacy.

Discovery of Quinine

Quinine drug was discovered to treat malarial fevers from Cinchona bark in 1820.

Germ Theory of Disease

Proposed by Pasteur and Koch, establishing that microorganisms cause diseases.

Robert Koch

Proved that microorganisms cause disease and established experimental steps for linking a specific microbe to a specific disease.

Louis Pasteur

French chemist and microbiologist known for discoveries in vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization.

Discovery of Vaccines

Pasteur discovered vaccines for fowl cholera, anthrax, and rabies between 1881 and 1885.

Emil von Behring

Developed diphtheria antitoxin.

Alexander Fleming

Discovered Penicillin.

Paul Ehrlich

First discovered chemotherapeutic agents and introduced the 'selective toxicity' principle in 1910.

Cortisones

Discovered during the 20th century as part of dramatic changes in medical care.

Pharmaceutical Industry Growth

Became one of the most advanced industries in the world during the 20th century.

Rx Compounding Statistics

In the 1930s, 75% of prescriptions required compounding by a pharmacist; by the 1970s, only 1% did.

First Apothecary Shops

Established in Baghdad, preserving Greco-Roman wisdom and natural resources.

Separation of Pharmacy and Medicine

Official supervision and obligation for pharmacists to prepare quality drugs.

First Official Pharmacopoeia

A list of drugs that standardized the practice of pharmacy.

Mercury (II) Chloride

Used by Paracelsus to treat syphilis.

The Dose Makes the Poison

A principle attributed to Paracelsus indicating that toxicity is dose-dependent.