The document discusses materia medica, which is the study of crude drugs obtained from plants, animals, and minerals. It covers the history and etymology of the term, describes crude drugs and their preparation and storage, and discusses various systems for classifying crude drugs based on their morphology, taxonomy, therapeutic use, and chemical constituents. The key classification systems covered are morphological, taxonomic, therapeutic, and based on active chemical constituents.
2. Materia medica
Study of crude drugs obtained from plants,
animals and mineral kingdom and their
constituents
An applied science that deals with the
biologic, biochemical and economic features
of natural drugs and their constituents
3. C.A. Seydler, a medical student at Halle,
Germany in 1815; wrote his doctoral thesis
titled Analectica Pharmacognostica
Physician J.A. Schmidt (Vienna) used the
term in his Lehrbuch der materia medica in
1811, to describe the study of medicinal
plants and their properties
5. Vegetable or animal drugs that consist of
natural substances which after collection are
subjected only to drying or making them into
transverse or longitudinal slices or peeling
them in some cases
May also be obtained by simple physical
processes like drying or extraction with
water
Plant exudates such as gums, resins and
balsams, volatile oils and fixed oils
6. Aloe – dried juice of leaves of Aloe sp.
Opium – dried latex from poppy capsules
Black catechu – dried aqueous extract from
the wood of Acacia catechu
7. Natural substances – substances found in nature
that comprise whole plants and herbs and anatomic
parts thereof
Crude – any product that has not been advance in
value or improved in condition by shredding,
grinding, chipping, crushing, distilling, evaporating,
extracting, artificial mixing with other substances
or by any other process or tx beyond what is
essential to its proper packing and to the
prevention of decay or deterioration pending
manufacture
8. Derivatives/extractives(chief constituent) – chief
principles separated by various means of extraction
Solvent/menstruum – liquid/liquid mixture used to
extract active principles
Marc – the undissolved portion of the drug that
remains after the extraction process is completed
Extractive – usually a mixture of subs which is the
product of the extraction process
9. Geographic source/habitat – the region in which the
plant or animal yielding the drug grows
Indigenous – plants growing in their native countries
(Pinus palustris – southern US)
Naturalized – plants that grow in a foreign land or in
a locality other than their native homes (Datura
stramonium – introduced in the US from Europe)
Commercial origin of a drug – production and
channels of trade
10. Collection – most advantageous collection
time is when the part of the plant that
constitutes the drug is highest in its content
of active principles and when the material
will dry to give the maximum quality and
appearance
Harvesting – hand labor (digitalis) / with the
use of mechanical devices
11. Drying – removes sufficient moisture to ensure good
keeping qualities and to prevent molding, the
action of enzymes/bacteria, and chemical or other
possible changes
- fixes the constituents, facilitates grinding and
milling, and converts the drug into a more convenient
form for commercial handling
- control of temp and regulation of air flow
- by the sun/ artificial heat
- “curing” - special drying process for natural
prods (vanilla), fermentation or sweating processes
are necessary to bring about changes in the
constituents
12. Garbling – final step in the preparation of a
crude drug; consists of the removal of
extraneous matter(other plant parts, dirt,
adulterants)
Packaging, storage and preservation – should
provide ample protection and economy of
space
- must maintain a high degree of quality
of the drug
13. Produced from wild (whale, musk, deer)
Fished (cod and halibut)
domesticated animals (hog, sheep, cattle) –
lanolin and milk prods, hormones, endocrine
prods, and some enzymes
Wild insects (cantharides)
Cultivated (honeybee)
14. According to:
their morphology
The taxonomy of the plants and animals from
which they are obtained
Their therapeutic applications
Their chemical constituents
15. Drugs are arranged accdg to their
morphological or external characters of the
plant parts or animal parts, i.e. which part of
the plant is used as a drug
A: More helpful to identify and detect
adulteration
More convenient for practical study
especially when the chemical nature of the
drug is not clearly understood
D: there is no correlation of chemical
constituents w/ the therapeutic actions
Repetition of drugs or plant occurs
16. obtained from the direct parts of the plants
and containing cellular tissues
(rhizomes, barks, leaves, fruits, entire
plants, hairs and fibers)
26. prepared from plants by some intermediate
physical processes such as incision, drying or
extraction with a solvent and not containing
any cellular plant tissues
(aloe juice, opium latex, agarm gambir,
gelatin, tragacanth, benzoin, honey,
beeswax, lemon graass oil, etc.)
37. Classified accdg to kingdom, subkingdom,
division,class, order, family, genus and
species
A: helpful for studying evolutionary
developments
D: does not correlate in between the
chemical constituents and biological activity
of the drugs
43. Each superorder is further divided into
several orders
The names of the orders end in -ales
44. Each order is divided into families
These are plants with many botanical
features in common, and are the highest
classification normally used.
A widely accepted system is that devised by
Cronquist in 1968, which is only slightly
revised today
The names of the families end in –aceae
45. The family may be further divided into a
number of subfamilies, which group together
plants within the family that have some
significant botanical differences.
Subfamilies end in -oideae
46. Part of the plant name that is most familiar;
the normal name that you give a plant
Papaver (poppy)
Arachis (peanut)
47. Level that defines an individual plant
The name will describe some aspect of the
plant – the color of the flowers, size or shape
of the leaves, or it may be named after the
place where it was found.
Should be written after the genus name, in
small letters
48. Grouping of drug according to their
pharmacological action or of most important
constituent or their therapeutic use
More relevant and mostly followed method
A: this system of classification can be used
for suggesting substitutes of drugs, if they
are not available at a particular place or
point of time
D: Drugs having different action on the
body get classified separately in more than
one group that causes ambiguity and
confusion
Cinchona – antimalarial (quinine)
antiarrhythmic(quinidine)
56. Crude drugs are classified depending upon
the active constituents
Irrespective of the morphological or
taxonomical characters, the drugs with
similar chemical constituents are grouped
together
A: it is a popular approach for
phytochemical studies
D: ambiguities arise when particular drugs
possess a number of compounds belonging to
different groups of compounds.
57. Chemical Constituent Group
Alkaloids Cinchona, Datura, Vinca,
Ipecac, Nux vomica
Glycosides Senna, Aloe, ginseng,
Glycyrrhiza, Digitalis
Carbohydrates and its
derivatives
Acacia, Tragacanth, Starch,
Isabgol
Volatile oil Clove, Coriander, Fennel,
Cinnamon, Cumin
Resin and Resin Combination Benzoin, Tolu Balsam, Balsam
of Peru
Tannins Catechu, Tea
Enzymes Papain, Casein, Trypsin
Lipids Beeswax, Kokum butter,
Lanolin