INTRODUCTION 



TO 



PHARMACOGNOSY. 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



Pharmacognosy is the study of drugs in their crude 

 condition. It is one of the branches of Pharmacolog>^ 

 which in its broad sense consists of the study of reme- 

 dial agents, or Materia Medica. Pharmacology includes 

 Pharmacognosy, the study of drugs in their crude con- 

 dition; Pharmacy, the preparation of drugs for the use 

 of the medical practitioner; and Pharmacodynamics, the 

 physiological action of drugs on living organisms. This 

 latter branch is sometimes termed Pharmacology, but 

 the word is then used in a narrow sense only. 



Thus the study of Pharmacognosy would include the 

 knowledge of drugs with reference to botany and chem- 

 istry, if of vegetable origin, or of their zoology and chem- 

 istry if derived from the animal kingdom. Substances 

 derived by chemical manufacture, such as the simple 

 salts, acids and alkalis, are not usually included in the 

 study of Pharmacognosy. The substances usually com- 

 ing within the domain of Pharmacognosy are of organic 

 nature. 



The study of plant drugs from the pharmacognostical 

 standpoint would include the study of the habitat and 

 general character of the plant from which the drug is 

 derived, its place in the botanical system, the organ or 



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