Pharmacopoeia

A pharmacopoeia, pharmacopeia, or pharmacopoea (from the obsolete typography pharmacopœia, meaning "drug-making"), in its modern technical sense, is a book containing directions for the identification of compound medicines, and published by the authority of a government or a medical or pharmaceutical society. Descriptions of preparations are called monographs. In a broader sense it is a reference work for pharmaceutical drug specifications. The term derives from pharmakopoiia "making of (healing) medicine, drug-making", a compound of “medicine, drug, poison” (pharmakon), with the verb "to make" (poiein), and the abstract noun suffix -ία -ia. In early modern editions of Latin texts, the Greek diphthong οι (oi) is latinized to its Latin equivalent oe which is in turn written with the ligature œ, giving the spelling pharmacopœia; in modern UK English, œ is written as oe, giving the spelling pharmacopoeia, while in American English oe becomes e, giving us pharmacopeia. Although older writings exist which deal with herbal medicine, the major initial work in the field is considered to be the Edwin Smith Papyrus in Egypt, Pliny's pharmacopoeia. A number of early pharmacopoeia books were written by Persian and Arab physicians. These included The Canon of Medicine of Avicenna in 1025 AD, and works by Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) in the 12th century (and printed in 1491), and Ibn Baytar in the 14th century. The Shen-nung pen ts'ao ching (Divine Husbandman's Materia Medica) is the earliest known Chinese pharmacopoeia. The text describes 365 medicines derived from plants, animals, and minerals; according to legend it was written by the Chinese god Shennong. Pharmacopeial synopsis were recorded in the Timbuktu manuscripts of Mali. The earliest extant Chinese pharmacopoeia, the Shennong Ben Cao Jing was compiled between 200-250 AD. It contains descriptions of 365 medications. The earliest known officially sponsored pharmacopoeia was compiled in 659 AD by a team of 23 pharmaceutical scientists led by Su jing during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD) and was called the Xinxiu bencao (Newly Revised Canon of Materia Medica).