HOMOEOPATHIC

PHARMACY
HOMOEOPATHY !!??
PHARMACY
derived from Greek word PHARMACON –
drug/ medicine/ remedy.

Its the art and science of identifying, collecting,

preparing, preserving, evaluating, standardising and
dispensing of medicines.

Science: a department of systematised knowledge of covering

general truth or laws especially as obtained and tested
through scientific methods.

Art: systemic application of knowledge of skill in effecting a

desired result.
HOMOEOPATHIC PHARMACY
Its the art and science of identifying,
collecting, compounding, combining, preparing,
standardising drugs and medicines from
vegetable, animal, mineral, certain physiological
substance, morbid substances according to
homoeopathic principles and also dispensing
medicines according to the prescription of the
homoeopathic physician.
 HISTORY OF PHARMACY
The history of pharmacy is the history of
medicine. History of medicine is as old as history
of mankind. It is very difficult to begin or to
point out the just beginning.

It accounts man’s efforts to deal with

human illnesses and diseases from primitive to
the present complex array of treatments.
History:
1. Primitive period:
Since the dawn of humanity, diseases have claimed
the attention of man.
This urged him to look out for the solution of his
problems – food, disease and death.
When injured, he applied a leaf, cool water or mud
to stop the bleeding. He learned that certain leaves served
him better than others.
Prehistoric people gathered plants for medicinal
purpose. By trial and error healing properties of natural
substances grew, The wise man of the tribe gathered
knowledge of the healing properties through experience.
 Disease was considered as a punishment
of god or evil spirit. Accordingly, magic was
employed as a remedial agent and priests became in
charge of religion and medicine.
When organized settlements arose,
changes influenced concepts of disease and healing.
The powers of Gods started declining.
The magical healer relied more on spells
and used magical stones more than plant materials.
The empirical healer drew upon drugs
and manipulated into several dosage forms. The
healers took on the duties of medicine preparation.
2. Period before 13th century:
*Egyptian medicine:
Earliest writings were those of Egyptians.
‘Ebers’, an Egyptian papyri is a list of remedies
with appropriate spells. It was based on magical
and religious beliefs connected with the entry of
the evil spirit into the body of the patient.
*Babylonian medicine:
1st half of the 2nd millennium BC.
Diagnostic handbook written by Esagil-kin-apli
of borsippa during 1069-1046. they are known by
their names of diagnosis, prognosis, physical
examination, prescription.
*Ancient Hindu medicine:
- Atharvavedha (second millennium B.C.-
800B.C) developed to Ayurveda around 1800 -
500 B.C. important medical treatises of that
period are ‘Charaka Samhitha’ and ‘Susrutha
Samhitha’. Charaka knew 500 medicinal plants
and Susrutha knew 760.
*Chinese medicine:
Most of the Chinese medicinal
literature is founded on an ancient work called
the ‘Nei-ching’. Emperor Huang-ti was the
author.Their moxibustion and acupuncture
techniques are now practised around the world
today. Hydrotherapy and vaccinations were
probably introduced by the Chinese.
*Greek And Roman medicine:
believed in supernatural influences, later Greek
philosophy refused to believe the supernatural theory
and set out to find for themselves the causes and
reasons for the strange ways of nature. Hippocrates
was born Father of Medicine (466-377 BC). He viewed
disease with respect to the patient and his
environment. He studied the patient and not the
disease. He found the logical method of clinical
observation. Interestingly, in one of his works, he
states the application of ‘Similia Similibus’. In his
book, ‘Demorbis Popularis’, he mentions about ‘dolor
dolorum solicit’, meaning, one pain to cure another.
Aristotle. He laid thefoundation of comparative
anatomy and embryology.

3. Period after 13th century:

Paracelsus (1493-1541) Chemically prepared
drugs from crude plant and mineral substances.
He preached the ‘Doctrine of signature’, a belief
that God had placed a sign on healing substances
indicating their use against disease. Eventually, as
the efficacy of some of these drugs became known,
they entered professional medical practice and
appeared in books on medicines.
 A great physician of the second century was
Galen. He laid great stress on the study of anatomy and
physiology. also advocated poly pharmacy. After the fall
of Rome, in the early middle ages, the field of medicine
remained stagnant for a long time. Revival of medicine
took place during the Renaissance movement of 14th,
15th and 16th century.
For pharmacy, printing had a profound
effect on the study of plant drugs, because illustrations
of the plant drugs could be reproduced easily.
Valerius Cordus (1515 - 1544) whose
Dispensatorium became the official standard for the
preparation of medicines in the city of Nuremberg and
generally is considered the first pharmacopoeia.
 Men traveled for new lands and returning
with new drugs eg: tobacco, cinchona,
ipecauc..etc.
Legal and scientific foundations of
pharmacy were established, which leads to
standardization of medicines through
publications of books called pharmacopoeias.
 1630- Caventor and Pelletier isolated alkaloid of quinine
1760-louis cadet made cocodyloxide by heating
potassium acetate and arsenic oxide.
Thomas Sydenham later in 17th century discovers the
specifics for disease conditions.
Alexander wood developed hypodermic needle.
Another important discovery was vaccination by Edward
Jenner.
1790- Hahnemann discovered Homoeopathy by
experimenting Peruvian bark.
 Isolation of insulin in 1921, came as a boon
to the diabetics.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the
structure of the human body was fully known
and concentration was on the advancement of
knowledge of pathology and the conclusive
verification of the germ theory by Louis Pasteur,
Joseph Lister and Robert Koch.
Roentgen had discovered Xray; Curies had
discovered radium and a new field of psychiatry
was opened by Sigmund Freud.
 The 20th century saw the discovery of
antibiotic, Penicillin by Alexander Flemming. It
revolutionized modern medicine.
Beginning of 20th century also saw the
formulation of ‘Laws of Heredity’ by Gregor
Johann Mendel. Today biotechnology is the buzz
word. It came into limelight because of the
breathtaking break through of recombinant DNA
technology, with which we have entered into an
era of gene therapy and genetic engineering.