PART II. 
PHARMACOGNOSY 
CHAPTER Is CRUDE DRUGS. 
A. INTRODUCTORY. 
Pharmacognosy is a term derived from two Greek 
words which, together, mean a knowledge of drugs. 
While there has been little or no attempt to define 
what constitutes pharmacognosy, it is usually limited 
to the study of drugs of vegetable origin. 
The origin of the word drug is more or less obscure, 
but it is now applied to any crude substance which 
may be employed in medicine, whether of vegetable, 
animal or mineral origin. 
The natural origin is the scientific name of either 
the plant or animal yielding the drug. In the case 
of vegetable drugs the natural origin is spoken of as 
the botanical origin. A vegetable drug usually repre- 
sents some special part of the plant, but in some 
instances the entire plant is employed, as chirata. 
The habitat of medicinal plants is the region where 
they grow. Sometimes this term is applied errone- 
ously to the drugs themselves. Neither the scientific 
name of the plant nor the commercial name of the 
drug may be relied upon as indicating the true habitat 
of medicinal plants as, for example, Spigelia Marilan- 
dica — the specific name of which indicates that it is 
found in Maryland — is only occasionally met with in 
that State. In other cases plants are common to a 
much larger territory than the specific name would 
indicate, as Prunus Virginiana. The geographical names 
associated with drugs frequently apply to the ports of 
