UNIT II

Historical Perspective of
Pharmacy Practice
 INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the unit, the student must be able to:

Relate the impact of the contributions of major personalities

and events in the history of Pharmacy to the present
pharmaceutical practice.
Before the Dawn of History
• Beliefs
• Sickness caused by evil forces
• punishment from the gods

• Remedies
• Offer sacrifices like food and prayers
• Use of natural resources like plants, mud
History of Pharmacy
• Antiquity
• Middle Ages
• Modern Europe
ANTIQUITY
Ancient Babylon
• Babylon
• Jewel of ancient Mesopotamia
• cradle of civilization
• earliest known record of practice of the
art of the apothecary

• Practitioners (2600 B.C.)

• priest, pharmacist and physician, all in
PHARMACY IN one
ANCIENT BABYLONIA
Ancient Babylon
• Clay tablets of Mesopotamia (800
tablets)
• Medical texts
• record of the symptoms of illness, the
prescription and directions for
compounding, then an invocation to the
gods

PHARMACY IN
ANCIENT BABYLONIA
Ancient China
• Shen Nung (2000 B.C.)
• Father of Chinese Pharmaceutics
• Emperor who investigated the medicinal
value of herbs
• podophyllum, rhubarb, ginseng,
stramonium, cinnamon bark, ma huang or
ephedra
- Wrote Pen T-Sao (The Botanical Basis of
Pharmacy), or native herbals
PHARMACY IN
ANCIENT CHINA
Ancient China
Lao Tzu (500 B.C.)
• a Taoist & natural philosopher
• author of The Way
• promoted concept of health and prosperity
through awareness and observance of
natural cosmic cycles
• Qi (energy) – balanced of Yin & Yang

PHARMACY IN
ANCIENT CHINA
Ancient Egypt
 Papyrus Ebers (1500 B.C.)
- oldest, best known and most important
pharmaceutical record

- 21 yards (60 ft) long, contains 800 Rx

mentioning 700 drugs

- Egyptians preparations such as gargles,

suppositories, inhalations, poultices,
ointments

PHARMACY IN
ANCIENT EGYPT
Biblical Records (1200 B.C.)
• Book of Sirach – creation of medicines by God
• Genesis – myrrh as astringent, carminative and protectant
• Exodus – olibanum (frankinscence)
Ancient Greece
• Hippocrates (460 B.C.)
• Father of Medicine
• sought the rationalization of treatment
• shows the fundamentals of scientific
method
Ancient Greece
• Theophrastus (300 B.C.)
• Father of Botany
• Philosopher and natural scientists
• observations and writings dealing with
the medical qualities and peculiarities of
herbs are accurate, even in the light of
present knowledge
Ancient Turkey
• Mithridates VI (100 B.C.)
• King of Pontus
• Father of Toxicology
• studied the art of poisoning and the art
of preventing and counteracting
poisoning
• Mithridatum
• His famed formula of alleged
pan-antidotal powers
• popular for over a thousand
years
Ancient Mediterranean
• Terra Sigillata (Sealed Earth)
• One of the first therapeutic agents to bear
a trademark as a means of identification
of source and of gaining customers'
confidence
• a clay tablet originating on the
Mediterranean island of Lemnos before
500 B.C .
Ancient Mediterranean
• Terra Sigillata (Sealed Earth)
• One day each year clay was dug from a pit on a Lemnian hillside in the
presence of governmental and religious dignitaries
• washed, refined, rolled to a mass of proper thickness
• formed into pastilles and impressed with an official seal by priestesses,
then sun-dried
• the tablets were then widely distributed commercially
MIDDLE AGES
Pedanios Dioscorides (1st A.D.)
• Father of Pharmacology
• De Materia Medica (600 plants
& 90 minerals)
• recorded what he observed,
promulgated excellent rules for
collection of drugs, their storage
and use (The Herbal)
• His texts were considered basic
science as late as the 16th century

DIOSCORIDES
Claudius Galen (130-200 A.D.)
• First Pharmacist / Botanist
• Practiced and taught both
Pharmacy and Medicine in Rome
• His principles of preparing and
compounding medicines ruled in
the Western world for 1,500 years

GALEN –
EXPERIMENTER IN
DRUG COMPOUNDING
Claudius Galen (130-200 A.D.)
• Galenicals - class of
pharmaceuticals compounded
by mechanical means
• Originator of the formula for a
cold cream (Galen’s cerates)
• Galen’s medical writings –
basis of treaties on simple
GALEN – drugs
EXPERIMENTER IN
DRUG COMPOUNDING
Latin Compilations
• Antidotaria
– similar to dispensatories

• Receptaria
– more modest formularies
Damian and Cosmas
• Damian – the apothecary
• Cosmas – the physician
• Twinship of the health professions
• Arabian descent
• Their careers were cut short in the
year 303 by martyrdom
• After canonization, they became
DAMIAN AND COSMAS -
the patron saints of Pharmacy and
PHARMACY'S Medicine
PATRON SAINTS
Monastic Pharmacy
• Practice of Pharmacy and Medicine
passed from lay practitioners to the
clerics
• Monasteries (5th -12th century)
• Center of intellectual life
• Monks
• Collected and cultivated medicinal
plants
• Distilled aromatic and cordial waters
Monastic Pharmacy

• Famous manuscripts:
• De Viribus Herbarum (Herbs
Used by the People) – Abbot Odo
in France
• Causae et Curae – Abbess
Hildegard in Germany
The Arabs
• Separated the arts of apothecary and
physician
• Established in Baghdad (late 8th
century) the 1st privately owned
drugstore
• treaties were more influential and
authoritative in Europe
• Developed more refined and elegant
way of administering drugs
THE FIRST APOTHECARY
SHOPS
Arabian Era (980 – 1037 A.D.)
• Ibn Sina
• Known as Avicenna by the
Western world
• Pharmacist, poet,
physician, philosopher,
diplomat
• His pharmaceutical
AVICENNA – teachings – contribution to
THE "PERSIAN GALEN" the sciences of Pharmacy
and Medicine
Magna Carta of 1240
• Issued by Frederick II,
head of the Holy Roman
Empire
• Edict creating pharmacy as
an independent branch of
public welfare service
• Pharmacy was separated
from Medicine in Sicily and
SEPARATION OF PHARMACY
AND MEDICINE
southern Italy
Magna Carta of 1240
• Limitation of the numbers of
pharmacies
• Fixed the prices of remedies
• Required official supervision
to pharmaceutical practice
• Made the use of prescribed
formulary compulsory
SEPARATION OF PHARMACY
AND MEDICINE
The First Official Pharmacopoeia
• Originated in Florence, Italy

• The Nuovo Receptario was the first official pharmacopeia and was
written in Italian.

• Published and became the legal standard for the city-state in 1498
MODERN EUROPE
Paracelsus (1493 – 1541 A.D.)
• Revolutionized Pharmacy
• Medicinal active “quintessences” from natural resources
• led to important discoveries in drug therapy
• transformed pharmacy from botanical science to
chemical science
The Society of Apothecaries of London

• In 1617, Francis Bacon formed a

separated company
• Master, Wardens and Society of the
Art and Mystery of the Apothecaries of
the City of London
• First organization of pharmacists in
the Anglo-Saxon World
Italy
• Cradle of European professional
pharmacy
• 1st professional European apothecary shop
• 1st post-antique antidotary
• 1st pharmacopoeia
• 1st real botanical garden

• Ricettario Florentino
THE FIRST OFFICIAL
• 1st official pharmacopoeia of the European PHARMACOPOEIA
world
Modern Age (18th century)
• William Withering – digitalis, digoxin
• Karl Scheele – arsenic, chlorine, glycerin, organic acids
• Edward Jenner – eradication of small pox
French Pharmacists
• Bernard Courtois – iodine in algae, bromine (sea water)
• Joseph Caventou & Pierre Pelletier– quinine, caffeine
• Pierre Robiquet – codeine
• Henri Moissan – flourine by electrolytic methods
German Pharmacists
• Frederick Serturner – morphine
• Johannes Buchner – salicin from willow bark, nicotine from
tobacco; aspirin and nicotinic acid production
• Rudolf Brandes & Philipp Geiger– hyoscyamine and atropine
20th Century Scientists
• Paul Ehrlich – Arsphenamine – syphilis
• Frederick Banting & Charles Best – insulin
• Gerhardt Domagk – Prontosil (Sulfa drug), for hemolytic
streptococci
• Alexander Fleming – penicillin
• Selman Waksman – streptomycin & neomycin
• Jonas Salk – injectable vaccine for polio
• Albert Sabin – oral vaccine for polio
Other Key Personalities
• William Procter Jr. – Father of American Pharmacy
• Jonathan Roberts – first hospital pharmacist
• John Morgan – advocated for prescription writing
• Andrew Craigie – America’s first Apothecary General; developed
wholesaling and manufacturing business of drugs.
• William Proctor Jr. – Father of American Pharmacy
• Stanislas Limousin – introduced the use of medicine dropper; developed
the apparatus for the administration of oxygen; invented glass ampules.
• Ernest Francois Auguste Forneau – developed chemotherapy
 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE
PHILIPPINE PHARMACEUTICAL PRACTICE
Pre-historic roots
• Albularyo / Arbularyo / Herbolaryo
o Folk healers / witch doctors
o Relied on using plants (herbs), rituals or chants, and traditional methods of healing
such as ”hilot” or massage

• Babaylans
o formerly fulfilled the role of albularyos
Pre-historic roots
• Preparations
o Macerations in cold and hot water
o Infusions or decoctions in oil of the curative plant parts
o Poultices and some powders
o Resinous plasters and salves with a waxy base
o Inhalations and fumigations and a few empyreumatic products.

• Our pre-knowledge obtained from the plant-based healing

methods of “albularyos” had been very instrumental in the
development of herbal medicines today.
History of Philippine Pharmaceutical Practice
• When the Spaniards came to the Philippines, they recognized three groups of natives
working for the sick:

1. the mediquillos (diminutive for medicos)

2. the curanderos (curers) local pharmacists-physicians
3. the herbolarios (curers using herbs)
University Of Santo Tomas
• First university in the Philippines to offer the Bachelor of Science in
Pharmacy degree and licentiate in pharmacy in 1871 through the
Dominican priests
Don Leon Ma. Guerrero
• first Filipino pharmacist
• one of the first graduates among the class of six at UST
• “Father of Philippine Pharmacy”
The Missionaries’ Interest on Medicinal Plants
Fr. Blas de la Madre de Dios
• first to make a written record of his findings on plants

Fr. Fernando Sta. Maria, OP

• devoted his time studying medicinal plants for the sick
• authored Medicinas Caceras

Fr. Manual Blanco, OSA

• authored Flora de Filipinas, a listing of some local medicinal plants
Botica Boie
• First drugstore in the Philippines (1830)
• An establishment that served as a soda fountain and a drug company
the the old Escolta in Manila
• Founded by a young physician-pharmacist, Dr. Lorenzo Negrao
COMMON SYMBOLS
USED IN PHARMACY
BOWL OF HYGEIA
•  The bowl with a snake coiled around it is called the bowl of Hygeia
with the serpent of Epidaurus.
MORTAR AND PESTLE
• one of the apparatuses used in extemporaneous compounding.
Rx symbol
• Found in prescription pads and principal display panel of
ethical/prescription drugs.
• Rx = ‘recipe’
REFERENCES
• Allen Jr., L.V.. Remington : An Introduction to Pharmacy. Pharmaceutical
Press (2013)
• Sy, S.. A Macroperspective of Pharmacy. UST (2019)