history of pharmacy

1. STAMFORD UNIVERSITY BANGLADESH
Assignment Topics : History of Pharmacy
Course Title: Introduction to pharmacy
Course Code: BPH-110
Submitted to:
Name: Ambia Khatun
Designation: Lecturer
Department of Pharmacy
Submitted by Group 5:
Name ID
Date of Submission: 17 April 2022

2. INDEX
Serial
No.
Content Page
No.
1 Pre-history Of Pharmacy
3 The Middle Ages
4 The Modern Ages
5 Conclusion
6 Reference

3. 1
Pre-history Of Pharmacy
“Prehistory” generally means the time period before information began to be written down. The medical
practices of prehistory are only known to people today because of anthropological and archaeological
studies, and there are many unanswered questions. Bones from excavations in different parts of the world
show signs of broken bones that were set, dental work, and even some surgical procedures. The shamans,
or “medicine men,” of most prehistoric societies were responsible for maintaining the health of the tribe,
and they would practice not only natural remedies from disease and pain but supernatural ones as well.
Prehistoric peoples were likely limited to only using their local resources to heal wounds and treat disease.
Based on the bones of some prehistoric peoples, researchers can determine that certain herbs were used to
treat wounds and improve immunity against disease. Some bones show evidence of being set in hardened,
molded clay casts after they were broken. Some prehistoric people show evidence of being knowledgeable
about dentistry, with drillings into teeth being dated to as long as 6,000 years ago.
Women were often the individual caretakers responsible for the health of their family members, and they
would have learned about the helpfulness of some plants and animal matter to treat disease, ease childbirth,
and nurture wounds. The average life expectancy of a prehistoric person was about 30 years, and the rate
of women and children who died in childbirth was much higher than today. Men often lived longer because
as hunters, they had greater access to nourishing food. However, men often sustained more injuries during
hunting, and their bones show that these wounds were more likely to be fatal than the wounds sustained
by women, who did not hunt.
Paleopharmacological studies attest to the use of medicinal plants in pre-history.For example, herbs were
discovered in the Shanidar Cave, and remains of the areca nut (Areca catechu) in the Spirit

4. 2
Cave.Prehistoric man learned pharmaceutical techniques through instinct, by watching birds and beasts,
and using cool water, leaves, dirt, or mud as a soothing agent.
The Middle Ages
In Baghdad the first pharmacies, or drug stores, were established in 754, under the Abbasid Caliphate
during the Islamic Golden Age. By the ninth century, these pharmacies were state-regulated.
Roman herbal medicine guidebook De Materia Medica of Dioscorides. Cumin & dill. c. 1334.
The advances made in the Middle East in botany and chemistry led medicine in medieval Islam
substantially to develop pharmacology. Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes) (865-915), for instance,
acted to promote the medical uses of chemical compounds. Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis) (936-
1013) pioneered the preparation of medicines by sublimation and distillation. His Liber servitoris is of
particular interest, as it provides the reader with recipes and explains how to prepare the "simples" from
which were compounded the complex drugs then generally used. Sabur Ibn Sahl (d. 869), was, however,
the first physician to initiate a pharmacopoeia, describing a large variety of drugs and remedies for
ailments. Al-Biruni (973-1050) wrote one of the most valuable Islamic works on pharmacology entitled
Kitab al-Saydalah (The Book of Drugs), where he gave detailed knowledge of the properties of drugs and
outlined the role of pharmacy and the functions and duties of the pharmacist. Ibn Sina (Avicenna), too,
described no less than 700 preparations, their properties, mode of action and their indications. He devoted
in fact a whole volume to simple drugs in The Canon of Medicine. Of great impact were also the works
by al-Maridini of Baghdad and Cairo, and Ibn al-Wafid (1008–1074), both of which were printed in Latin
more than fifty times, appearing as De Medicinis universalibus et particularibus by `Mesue' the younger,
and the Medicamentis Simplicibus by `Abenguefit'. Peter of Abano (1250–1316) translated and added a

5. 3
supplement to the work of al-Maridini under the title De Veneris. Al-Muwaffaq's contributions in the field
are also pioneering. Living in the tenth century, he wrote The Foundations of the True Properties of
Remedies, amongst others describing arsenious oxide, and being acquainted with silicic acid. He made
clear distinction between sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate, and drew attention to the poisonous
nature of copper compounds, especially copper vitriol, and also lead compounds. He also describes the
distillation of sea-water for drinking.
Illustration of a pharmacy in the Italian Tacuinum sanitatis, 14th century.
The Modern Ages

6. 4
The Modern Age is a period in human history which spans from the 20th century begining with the period
after the end of First World War and ending with the advent of the Digital revolution.
It is known as E ty M oderna to the third of the historical periods it is usually divided the history of
mankind, and comprising the centuries between XV and XVIII, that is, between the Middle Ages or
Medieval and Contemporary Age.
The Modern Age is usually understood as the end of the religious obscurantism that characterized the
previous period , and the search to recover the classic legacy of the Ancient Age , especially the Greco-
Roman. It is usually taken as the beginning of this new era at the fall of , capital of the Eastern Roman
Empire, under siege of the Ottoman Empire in the year of 1453; or the arrival of the first Spanish settlers
to America (the “discovery”) in 1492, an event that would radically enlarge the limits of the world known
for the time.In the Modern Age there was a revolution of thought , especially in Western Europe and its
surrounding regions, which broke with the paradigms that five centuries of Christian theocracy had
imposed, thus betting on the human being as the center of creation, and its capacities of reasoning,
invention and full understanding of the universe, such as the new forces that would shape the reality of
the species.Said in simpler terms, the religious order that left everything in the hands of God is fractured
and faith in human reason takes its place : the human being now owned his own destiny.
The end of the Modern Era is usually located in the great Revolutions that forever altered the monarchical
order, making way for the Republic: the independence of the United States of America in 1776, a prelude
to what would take place in the Spanish-American colonies at the beginning of the 19th century, or even
more the French Revolution of 1789 , in which the plain people rose up in arms against the absolutist
monarchy and its clergy allies, forever changing the destiny of that nation and exeting a fundamental
political influence in the entire world.
Conclusion
✓ 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 study of the history of pharmacy is deserving of consideration as a review of the past, so that we
may understand the present, and thus be enabled to plan intelligently for the future.

7. 5
✓ The face of pharmacy may have changed over the past 1000 years , but its traditional role remains the
same .
✓ Although the preparation and preservation of drug products have moved from pharmacy to the
pharmaceutical industry,the pharmacist continues to fulfill the prescriber's intentions, by not only
dispensing a medication but also by providing a quality product,providing advice and information , and
monitoring drug therapy.

8. 6
Reference
√ "Becoming a Pharmacist & History of Pharmacy | Pharmacy is Right for Me". Pharmacy
for me. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
√ "Pharmacy". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-07-27
√ "History of Pharmacy Web Pages - Sweden´s oldest pharmacies". Archived from the
original on 2011-06-23. Retrieved 2011-04-27.
√ "Pharmacy - Research". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
√ https://www.gohighbrow.com
√ https://riseofnations.fandom.com/wiki/Modern_Age/History
√ https://www.britannica.com/event/Middle-Ages
√ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pharmacy