Introduction

to Drugs and
Pharmacy
Objectives:

 1. to define DRUG
 2. to enumerate indications and uses of common
drugs used
 3. to cite some personalities who contributed in
history of Pharmacy
 4. to realize the importance of drugs or medicines
to humans
DRUG?

 Diagnosis
 Mitigation
 Treatment
 Cure
 Prevention
 Mydriatics
 Miotics
 Emetics
 Antiemetics
 Diuretics
 Expectorant
 Cathartics/laxatives
 Reduce pain, fever
 Rhinitis
 Gastric acidity
 Motion sickness
 Blood pressure
 Mental depression
 Destroy intestinal worms
 Assist smoking cessation/alcohol withdrawal
Drug
POISON
OR TREATMENT?
Drug has a
power to heal
and kill!!
FORMULATIONS
Pharmaceutical
Ingredients
 Fillers  Tablet coatings
 Thickeners  Antimicrobial
preservatives
 Solvents
 Colorants
 Suspending agents
 Flavorants
 Sweeteners
 Formulations must be preserved to prevent
degradation
 Therapeutic ingredient or active ingredient must
be released from the dosage form in proper
desired quantity
 Pharmacists can greatly contribute to patient
care -----
 Drug action, pharmacotherapeutics, formulation
and dosage form design, available
pharmaceutical products, and drug information
sources
 Pharmacist is entrusted with legal responsibility for
the procurement, storage, control and distribution
of effective products
Heritage of
Pharmacy
 Drugs from plant and minerals have existed as
long as humans.
 Use of crude drugs – bathing with cool water or
by soothing it with a fresh leaf
 In early times – disease was believed to be
caused by demons or evil spirits
 These can be removed by incantations,
application of noisome materials, and
administration of herbs or plant materials
 FIRST APOTHECARY

 Priestcraft, wise man or woman of the tribe –

apothecary originated

 The art of apothecary has always been

associated with mysterious, practitioners believed
to have connections with the spirits
 “Pharmakon”- charm that can be used for good
or evil
 Success may be due to experience, mere
coincidence, natural healing, inconsequential
effect, or placebo effects
 Priest-magician / Priest-physician became the
healer of body as well as the soul


 PHARMACY and MEDICINE are indistinguishable in

their early history of practice
 EARLY DRUGS

 Numerous ancient tablets, scrolls and other relics

as early as 3000 BC has been uncovered and
deciphered by scholars.
 Ebers papyrus – a continuous scroll some 60ft long
and a foot wide
 University of Leipzig (George Ebers)
 More than 800 formulas and prescriptions
 More than 700 drugs mentioned
 Acacia, castor bean, and fennel
 Vehicles – beer, wine, milk, honey
 Equipment – mortar & pestle, hand mills, sieves,
balances
 Preparations – suppositories, gargles, pills,
inhalations, troches, lotions, ointments, plasters
and enemas
 DIFFERENT
PERSONALITIES
 1. Hippocrates (460-377 BC)
 - Greek Physician
 - rationalized, systematized, and placed medicine on
a high ethical oath
 - Hippocrates Oath
 - “pharmakon” means a purifying remedy for good
only
 - Father of Medicine”
 ring

 2. Dioscorides (1st century AD)

 - Greek physician and botanist
 - “ De Materia Medica”- list of naturally occur
medicinal materials
 - opium, ergot, hyoscyamus
 - identifying, collecting and proper storage
 3. Cladius Galen (130-200AD)
 - Greek pharmacist-physician
 - made 500 treaties on medicines and 259
philosophy laws and grammar
 - drug formulations & methods of compounding
 - “Galenic Pharmacy”
 - Galen’s Cerate ---- cold cream
 4. Emperor Frederick II of Germany
 - separation of Pharmacy & Medicine on 1240 AD
 - pharmacists were obligated to oath to prepare
reliable drugs
 5. Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493-
1541)
 -Swiss physician
 - influenced transformation of Pharmacy based from
botanical science to chemical science
 - medicinal agent to combat disease by introduction of
chemical substance


EARLY RESEARCH
Swede Karl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786)
Acids: lactic, citric, oxalic, tartaric, arsenic
 Glycerin, new methods of preparing calomel &
benzoic acid
 Discovered oxygen
 Friedrich Surturner (1783-1841)
 German pharmacist
 Isolated active materials
 Joseph Caventou (1795-1877) & Joseph Pelletier
(1788-1842)
 Isolated quinine and cinchonine from cinchona;
strychnine and brucine from nux vomica
 Pelletier & Pierre Robiquet (1780-1840)
 Isolated caffeine

 Robiquet independently separated codeine from

opium
Isolated Drugs from
Natural Sources
 1. Paclitaxel (Taxol) – antitumor; metastatic
carcinoma of ovary
 From Pacific Yew Tree (Taxus baccata)

 2. Vincaleukoblastine – antineoplastic drug

 From Vinca rosea

 3. Digoxin (Lanoxin) – cardiac glycosides

 From Digitalis lanata
Drug standards

 More and more pharmacists were stimulated to

manufacture drugs

 USP – United States Pharmacopeia (1820)
 NF – National Formulary (1888)

 “Pharmacopeia” – came from pharmakon and
poiein

 BP – British Pharmacopeia
 From Great Britain
 Lititz Pharmacopeia – 1st American Pharmacopeia
(1778)
 -32 page containing 84 internal and 16 external
drugs and preparations


 USPXX-NFXV – 1st combined compendium

 -July 1, 1980

 Lyman Spalding – Father of USP

 - January 6, 1817
 USP23-NF18 – 1995 (start of no Arabic codes)
 USP25-NF20 – 2002
 USP31-NF26 – 2003 with CD ROM
 The Pharmacopeia was made to provide
standard to set limit and made available to the
public
The names of the various drugs and
preparations are indicated in the
Pharmacopoeia as follows:
 Official title
 Synonyms
 Chemical formula
 Official definition
 Purity Rubric
 Official description
 Solubility
 Test for identity
 Assay
 Packaging & Storage
 Available strength
 Category
 Usual dose / usual dosage range
Other Pharmacopeias:

 Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United

States and the International Pharmacopoeia (IP)
provide additional guidelines for drug quantity
require by certain practitioners and agencies
Pharmacist’s
Contemporary
Role
Pharmaceutical
care
Qualities of a successful
pharmacy graduate
 1. problem solver
 2. able to achieve health outcomes through
effective medication use
 3. able to collaborate
 4. committed life-long learner