HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
From the origin of living organisms, the use of medicinal agents for the
treatment of the ailing is being practiced. The mankind has employed different
medicinal agents for treating different types of sufferings. From, the history,
it is found that the discovery of drugs was undoubtedly through the process of
trial and error, as people tried various plants, animal & mineral
substances in their environment as potential sources of food. Such accumulated
knowledge, from the trials and errors, gave rise to oral traditions with in
tribes, and folklore on drugs developed.
Ancient Medicine
Chinese
medicine is the earliest and records dated about 2500 BC available today give an idea about the medical knowledge of
Chinese. Ephedra or Mahuang was reported to have been used as a tonic. Ayurveda or Indian Medicine is about
equally ancient. Charaka, Sushruta and
Vagbhata made a compilation of old
and new drugs in the cure of diseases to form the science of life namely Ayurveda. Egyptian medicine is also very ancient. The Ebers Papyrus, which is
dated about 1500 BC gives a collection of drugs prevalent in Egypt
at that time, their classification and their use. Some of the drugs employed
now such as, castor oil and pomegranate bark are mentioned in this papyrus.
Pre-Christian Era
Greek medicine is said to be the
father of modern medicine and therapeutics. Hippocrates in the fifth century BC separated medicine from
religion and was known as the father of
medicine. He laid down certain principles on which modern medicine is
built. According to Hippocrates the four elements of nature namely water, fire,
air and earth gave rise to the four humors of the body namely blood, phlegm,
yellow bile or urine and black bile. Any imbalance in one or more of these
humors inflicted sufferings. Galen
was a famous Greek Physician who practiced in Rome. His name is still used to refer some
drugs as galenical drugs. Galenical
drugs are pharmaceuticals compounded by mechanical means, mostly of the vegetable
material. He was the father of polypharmacy.
Mediaeval medicine
Paracelsus introduced
inorganic chemicals like mercury into medicine. He called this 'Iatro Chemistry' or medicinal chemistry.
He induced practitioners to use laudanum (an opium preparation), sulphur, iron,
copper sulphate, potassium sulphate, mercurials and tinctures and fluidextracts
of various plants for treatment of diseases.
Revolts in medicine
By the beginning of
19th century the principle of shotgun prescription flourished. Shotgun prescription is one that
contains a number of substances, which have no therapeutic affinity. It is a
result of ignorant attempt to hit the trouble, no matter what may be its
nature).
Gregory advocated
methods like venesection, leeching emetics and drastic purgatives. Large doses
of purgatives were given. The patient either survived or died. This sort of
symptomatic treatment was referred to as allopathy
meaning other suffering. This term
allopathy is now being used to refer modern medicine.
Samuel Hahnemann introduced homeopathy meaning 'similar
suffering’ at the commencement of 19th century. In Greek,
"homos" means same and "patheia" means suffering. He was
known as the father of homeopathy.
Homeopathy introduced by him had two newer principles that 'like cures like’
and 'dilution potentiates the action of drugs'. Hahnemann was the first to
conceive the idea of an experimental approach to pharmacology.
Modern medicine
Buccheim, a professor of Dorpat University
who was known as the father of
Pharmacology set up the first laboratory to study pharmacology. He
discarded many remedies because rational scientific action or explanation could
not be demonstrated in his laboratory. By the middle of the 19th
century, modern medicine had brought to fight disease only one effective weapon
i.e. immunization against smallpox. Later in quick succession came the
anaesthetics and antiseptics. In the last quarter, the causative organisms for
malaria, plaque, cholera etc. were identified. Beginning in the 20th
century, the fresh wind of synthetic chemistry began to revolutionize the
pharmaceutical industry and with it the science of pharmacology. New synthetic
drugs, such as barbiturates and local anaesthetics, began to appear and the era of antimicrobial chemotherapy began with
the discovery of arsenical compounds for the treatment of syphilis by Paul Ehrlich in 1909. He was known as
the father of chemotherapy. Further
breakthroughs came with the discovery of sulphonamides by Gerhard Domagk in
1935 and the development of penicillin during World War II. The addition of
drugs to the therapeutic jungle is growing with rapid pace from the later half
of the 20th century.
List of important
events in the history of pharmacology
3000-2500BC The Rig veda was written
2700 BC Chinese herbal, the Pen Tsao attributed to Emperor Schinnung
2200 BC Code of Hamurabi described penalties for
malpractice by practitioners
2000 BC Kahun Papyrus oldest record of Egyptian medicine
1550 BC Ebers Papyrus a compilation of a number
of disease conditions and prescriptions employed in Egyptian medicine
626 - 568 BC Clay tablets showing highly
developed medical science in Sumeria
460 - 375 BC Hippocrates - Greek
Physician - Father of Medicine
Concepts of Hippocratic
School include -
1. healing power of
nature (Is medicatrix naturae) and
2. above all do no
harm
384 - 322 BC Aristotle - numerous
observations on animals recorded
380 - 287 BC Theophrastus
systematically classified medicinal plants on the basis of their individual
characteristics.
77 AD Dioscorides
a pupil of Aristotle compiled first Materia Medica (materials of medicine).
This was principally a qualitative classification of medicinal herbs but
included minerals and a few products of animal origin
131 – 201AD Galen
- His works were widely used for the next 1400 years
702 – 765AD Geber
Ibn Hajar - classified drugs and poisons and recognized that the difference
between a drug and a poison was a matter of dosage
1493 – 1541AD Theophrastus
- introduced the clinical use of ladanum (opium) and a number of tinctures of
various pants
1514 – 1544AD Valerius
Cordus a German compiled first pharmacopoeia
1578 – 1657AD William Harvey discovered circulation of blood
and indicated that drugs can be distributed by this means to different parts
1632 – 1723AD Christopher
Wren made first intravenous injection in dogs
1692AD The term 'pharmacologie' was applied to the
science of materia medica by S. Dale
1728 – 1793AD John Hunter influenced a group of physicians to
conduct controlled clinical experimentation
1741- 1799AD William Withering wrote "An account of
the Foxglove and some of its medical uses"
1749 – 1823AD Edward
Jenner introduced prophylactic immunization against small pox and was the
first to describe anaphylaxis
1755 – 1843AD Samuel
Hahnemann introduced homeopathy concept
1783 – 1814AD Friedrich
Serturner isolated the specific narcotic substance from opium and named
morphine after Morpheus, the Roman God of sleep. He administered opium to three
of his friends and himself and after experiencing sleep, named it as morphine
1809AD Francois Megendie studied the action
of nuxvomica on dogs and showed that the spinal cord was the site of its
convulsant action. He published many reports on the effects of intravenous
injection of ipecac, morphine, HCN, strychnine, iodine, potassium, veratrine,
quinine and many other drugs. He published a formulary containing the actions
and preparations of a large number of drugs.
1817 – 1874AD Alexander
Wood designed first hypodermic needle and syringe
1838 – 1921AD Oswald
Schmiedeberg recognized as the founder of modem medicine studied the
pharmacology of chloroform and chloral hydrate. He also showed that muscarine
evoked a response similar to vagal stimulation. He also introduced urethane as
hypnotic.
1857 – 1938AD John J. Abel Father of Pharmacology in USA
isolated epinephrine from adrenal gland extracts, histamine from pituitary
extracts and prepared pure crystalline insulin.
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