History of Pharmacy

Introduction to Pharmacy

Pharmacy is the fastest growing, dynamic profession offering a wealth of opportunities. The community pharmacy was established in America since the 1920s.

The first clinical pharmacy program to adopt as a degree of Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program was the University of Southern California in 1950.

Higher professional standing began to enter in the profession from 1960s onward. In the past more focus was on the subjects like basic sciences of chemistry and physics; medicine-related subjects such as Pharmacognosy, botany, pharmacology, physiology, and public health; and practice-related subjects such as small-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing, prescription filling, and retail sales operations.

But now, the Pharmaceutical Curriculum comprises of all information on diagnosis and treatment of disease. Time has come that a pharmacist has a duty to assist their “customers” as to how to “the cure for an ailment,” they have to treat a disease without or contrary to a prescription from a physician.

History of Pharmacy Profession

The history of pharmacy as an independent science  dates back to the first third of the 19th century. Before then, pharmacy evolved from antiquity as part of medicine. The history of pharmacy coincides well with the history of medicine, but it’s important that there is a distinction between the two topics.
Pharmaceuticals is one of the most-researched fields in the academic industry, but the history surrounding that particular topic is sparse compared to the impact its made world-wide. Before the advent of pharmacists, there existed apothecaries that worked alongside priests and physicians in regard to patient care Between 60 and 78 AD, the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides wrote a five-volume book, De materia medica, covering over 600 plants and coining the term materia medica. It formed the basis for many medieval texts, and was built upon by many Middle Eastern scientists during the Islamic Golden Age. In Japan, at the end of the Asuka period and the early Nara period (710–794), the men who fulfilled roles similar to those of modern pharmacists were highly respected. The place of pharmacists in society was expressly defined in the Taihō Code (701) and re-stated in the Yōrō Code .

Pharmacy is the fastest growing, dynamic profession offering a wealth of opportunities. The community pharmacy was established in America since the 1920s. The first clinical pharmacy program to adopt as adegree of Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program was the University of Southern California in 1950. Higher professional standing began to enter in the profession from 1960s onward. In the past more focus was on the subjects like basic sciences of chemistry and physics; medicine-related subjects such as pharmacognosy, botany, pharmacology, physiology, and public health; and practice-related subjects such as small-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing, prescription filling, and retail sales operations. But now, the Pharmaceutical Curriculum comprises of all information on diagnosis and treatment of disease. Time has come that a pharmacist has a duty to assist their “customers” as to how to “the cure for an ailment,” they have to treat a disease without or contrary to a prescription from a physician.

Pharmaceutical Chemistry:

Pharmaceutical chemistry is the backbone of pharmacy. It includes organic chemistry, biochemistry, analytical chemistry and medicinal chemistry. The highly knowledgeable pharmaceutical chemists plays a crucial role by interacting with scientists of other disciplines, such as molecular biology, structural biology, pharmacology, physical chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacokinetics, pharmaceutical technology, toxicology or with experts from the field of translational medicine, etc. The medicinal chemistry is concerned with the drug designingand synthesis of biologically active molecules. The main domains of Pharmaceutical chemistry is the drug designing; stability, method development, validation and quality control of drugs.

Pharmaceutics:

Pharmaceutics is the art and science of preparing and dispensing drugs and medicines. The subject Pharmaceutics is associated with all the stages that follows the discovery or synthesis of the drug, its isolation and purification, and testing for advantageous pharmacological effects and absence of serious toxicological problems. It deals with the formulation of a pure drug substance into a dosage form. In simple word we can say– “pharmaceutics converts a drug into a medicine”. The main subject covers Physical Pharmacy,Dosage Form, Community and Dispensing, Forensic, Biopharmaceutics, Industrialand Pharmaceutical Technology.

Pharmacology:

Pharmacology is the science of drugs and their effect on living systems. It is the science explaining as to what is happening to your body and to the drug action itself.It involves looking at the interaction of chemical substances with the systems in our bodies, as well as identifying ways in which our biological systems affect drugs.Pharmacologists are medical scientists who devote their careers to developing new drugs and evaluating their safety and effectiveness. Pharmacists, who dispense medications

Pharmacognosy:

The study of crude drugs of plant and animal origin. Pharmacognosy specialized in the authentication and quality, as evaluated macroscopically and microscopically, of crude drugs that were mainly of plant origin. Heinrich et al., 2004, stated that it is the science of biogenic or naturally derived pharmaceuticals and poisons. It deals with medicinal plants as crude herbs or extracts, pure natural compounds and foods having health benefits. Research in pharmacognosy includes phytochemistry, microbial chemistry, biosynthesis, biotransformations, chemotaxonomy and other biological and chemical sciences. In the past 50 years, the focus is made on phytochemistry and biological activities of natural products.

Clinical Pharmacy:

Clinical pharmacy is a health science discipline in which pharmacists provide patient care that optimizes medication therapy and promotes health, and disease prevention. Pharmacists review records of patients to determine the appropriateness of medication therapy. Evaluating patient’s condition to ensure all issues are being treated. Future pharmacists should be concerned with advancing the profession as a whole, do the analysis of population regarding medicines, way of administration, pattern of use, drug’s effect on patient.

Pharmacy Practice:

The “Practice of Pharmacy” means the interpretation, evaluation, and implementation of Medical Orders; it includes more traditional roles such as compounding and dispensing of medications, participation in Drug and Device selection; Drug Administration; Clinical Services, Reviewing Medications for safety and efficacy, and providing drug information; the Practice of Telepharmacy within and across state lines.
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