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Concept
Pharmacognosy
Summary
Pharmacognosy is the study of crude drugs obtained from medicinal plants, animals, fungi, and other natural sources. 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 sources".
The word "pharmacognosy" is derived from two Greek words: φάρμακον, pharmakon (drug), and γνῶσις gnosis (knowledge) or the Latin verb cognosco (con, 'with', and , 'know'; itself a cognate of the Greek verb γι(γ)νώσκω, gi(g)nósko, meaning 'I know, perceive'), meaning 'to conceptualize' or 'to recognize'.
The term "pharmacognosy" was used for the first time by the German physician Johann Adam Schmidt (1759-1809) in his published book Lehrbuch der Materia Medica in 1811, and by Anotheus Seydler in 1815, in his Analecta Pharmacognostica.
Originally—during the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century—"pharmacognosy" was used to define the branch of medicine or commodity sciences ( in German) which deals with drugs in their crude, or unprepared form. Crude drugs are the dried, unprepared material of plant, animal or mineral origin, used for medicine. The study of these materials under the name 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 ("science of crude drugs") is also used synonymously.
As late as the beginning of the 20th century, the subject had developed mainly on the botanical side, being particularly concerned with the description and identification of drugs both in their whole state and in powder form. Such branches of pharmacognosy are still of fundamental importance, particularly for botanical products (widely available as dietary supplements in the U.S. and Canada), quality control purposes, pharmacopoeial protocols and related health regulatory frameworks.
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