Pharmacognosy
From Free net encyclopedia
Pharmacognosy is the study of medicinal products in their crude, or unprepared, form. The word derives from the Greek words pharmakon (drug), and gnosis or knowledge. To say very basically, Taxonomy is the subject to identify the plants using flowers and Pharmacognosy is a subject to identify or authenticate the plant parts using macroscopical, anatomical and phytochemical characters.
It includes the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties of drugs, drug substances, or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well as the search for new drugs from natural sources.
Today pharmacognosy is basically a branch of chemistry, but its historical roots are in pharmacy, and academics considering themselves to be involved in pharmacognosy are almost exclusively at schools of pharmacy.
Today molecular biological techniques especially DNA fingerprints (RAPD, RFLP, AFLP) are also used to identify and authenticate the herbs. Even there are some US patents were issued for identifying the herbs using DNA fingeprints.
External links
ca:Farmacognòsia
de:Heilpflanzenkunde
ja:生薬学
sv:Farmakognosi
th:เภสัชวินิจฉัย
zh:生药