Introduction To Pharmaceutics

Introduction to Drugs, Drug Dosage Forms and Drug
Delivery Systems
What is a drug?
• A drug is defined as an agent intended for use in the diagnosis, mitigation, treatment,
cure or prevention of disease in humans or in animals (Food, Drugs and Cosmetic Act of
1938)
• One of the most astounding qualities of drugs is the diversity of actions and effects on
the body.
Different Types of Drugs

• Centrally Acting Agents
• GI agents
• Mydriatic
• Miotic
• Anticoagulants
• Anti-anemics
• Emetics
• Anti-emetics
• Diuretic
• Expectorant
• Cathartic / Laxatives
• Antipyretics
• Analgesic
• Anti-vertigo
• Anti-hypertensive
• Anti-arrythmic
• Anti-insomniac
• Anti-depressant
• Anti-infectives
• Anthelmentic
• Antineoplastics
• Radiopharmaceuticals
Sources of Drugs
• Plant or Animal Sources
• By products of microbial growth
• Chemical Synthesis
• Biotechnology
How to become drug po?
• The process of becoming a drug is a long arduous process involving numerous, different
tests.
Process of becoming a drug

• A source of the drug must be tested, usually the extract of a plant or animal is tested for
pharmacologic activity
• Isolation of the active constituent from the raw extract of a plant is performed
• After a potential new drug substance is discovered, it undergoes definitive chemical and
physical characterization
A great deal of biologic information must be gathered

• Basic pharmacology including nature and mechanism of action of the drug on the
biologic system
• Toxicologic features
• Pharmacodynamic properties (ADME)
• Long term effects if the tissues it affects
• Effect of drug in pregnant patients
• The most effective routes of administration must be determined

• The guidelines of dosing based on age, weights and disease states must be established.
• The design, development, production and use are the product of the pharmaceutical
sciences – blending of basic, applied, and clinical sciences with pharmaceutical
technology.
Pharmaceutical Dosage Form

• Each pharmaceutical product is a formulation unique onto itself.
• In addition to the active therapeutic ingredients, it also includes non-active ingredients
namely; excipients.
• It is through these excipients that a formulation achieves its unique composition and
characteristic physical appearance.
• Examples include fillers, thickeners, solvents, suspending agents, flavors, colorants.
• The formulation must be such that all components are physically and chemically
compatible. Including the excipients and the packaging material.
• The formulation must be preserved against decomposition due to chemical degradation,
protected from microbial contamination, destructive influences of excessive heat, light
and moisture.
Heritage of Pharmacy
• Drugs, in the form of vegetation and minerals have existed as long as humans. Human
disease and the instinct to survive have led to their discovery through the ages
• The uses of crude drugs have begun even before recorded history.
• Among many races, diseases were believed to be caused by the entrance of demons or
evil spirits into the body. The treatment for these spirits are the use of spiritual
incantations, application of materials and administration of specific herbs or plant
materials
First Apothecary
• Before the days of priest craft, the wise man or woman of the tribe, whose knowledge
of the healing qualities of plants had been gathered through experience or handed
down by word of mouth, was called upon to attend to the sick.
• It is this knowledge in preparing the remedy that the art of apothecary originated.
• Because of this the tribal apothecary was one to be feared, respected, trusted and
revered.
• Throughout history, the knowledge of drugs and their application to disease has always
meant power.
• In Homeric epics, the term “pharmakon” which our word pharmacy was derived,
connotes a charm or a drug that can be used for good or for evil.
• As time passed, the art of the apothecary combined with priestly functions, the priest-
magician became the healer of the body and as well of the soul.
Early drugs
• Due to the patience and intellect of the archeologist, the types and specific drugs used
in early history are not as indefinable as one might suspect.
• Numerous relics, tablets, scrolls have been uncovered and deciphered.
• Perhaps the most famous of these surviving memorials is the Ebers papyrus – a scroll
60ft long and a foot wide, dating to 16th century BC.
• The text of Ebers papyrus is dominated by drug formulas more than 800 formulas or
prescriptions being described.
• Many of the pharmaceutical formulas employed two dozen or more medicinal agents, a
type of preparation later called polypharmacy
Introduction of the Scientific Viewpoint

• Hippocrates, a Greek physician, is credited with the introduction of scientific pharmacy
and medicine. He rationalized medical knowledge and put the practice of the medicine
on a high ethical plane.
• His concepts and precepts are embodied in the Renowned Hippocratic oath of ethical
behavior for the healing professions.
• It was this time that the term pharmakon came to mean a purifying remedy for good.
• Hippocrates is honored by being called the Father of Medicine
• Dioscorides, a Greek physician and botanist was the first to deal with botany as an
applied science of pharmacy
• His work De Materia Medica is considered a milestone in the development of
pharmaceutical botany.
• This later became a study known as natural product chemistry or Pharmacognosy, a
term formed from two Greek words, pharmakon(drug) and gnosis(knowledge).
• Dioscorides described opium, ergot, hyoscyamus to have a use in medicine. These plants
are still used in medicine today.
• Claudius Galen, a Greek pharmacist-physician who attained Roman Citizenship, aimed to
create a perfect system of physiology, pathology and treatment.
• Galen formulated doctrines that were followed for 1500 years.
• His medical writings include descriptions of numerous drugs of natural organs with
profusion of drug formulas and methods of compounding
• He originated so many preparations of vegetable drugs by mixing or melting individual
ingredients that the field of pharmaceutical preparations was once called “Galenic
Pharmacy”
• The most famous of his formulas is the one for cold cream or Galen’s Cerate.
• Pharmacy remained a function of medicine until the increasing variety of drugs and the
growing complexity of compounding demanded specialist who could devote full
attention to the art.
• Pharmacy was officially separated from medicine in 1240 AD when a decree of Emperor
Frederick II of Germany regulated the practice of pharmacy.
• Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, a swiss physician who called himself
Paracelsus influenced the pharmacy profession to move from a botanical science into a
chemical science.
• He believed that it was possible to prepare a specific medicinal agent to combat each
specific disease.
• The Sweedish, Karl Wilhelm Scheele is one of the most famous

pharmacists due to his discovery of the chemicals; lactic acid,
citric acid, tartaric acid, oxalic acid, arsenic acide.
• He identified glycerin, invented new methods of preparing
calomel and benzoic acid, and discovered oxygen a year before
Priestly.
• The isolation of morphine from opium by the German

pharmacist Freidrich Serturner prompted a species of
isolations of other active materials from medicinal
plants.
• Joseph Caventou and Joseph Pelletier combined their talents and isolated quinine and
cinchonine from cinchona. Strychnine and brucine from nux vomica
• Pierre Robiquiet isolated caffeine and he also isolated Codeine from opium.
• Contemporary examples of drug isolated form natural sources:

• Paclitaxel from Pacific yew tree (Taxus baccata)
• Vinblastine from Periwinkle (Vinca rosea)
• Digoxin from (Digitalis lanata)

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Introduction to Drugs, Drug Dosage Forms and Drug

Different Types of Drugs

Process of becoming a drug

A great deal of biologic information must be gathered

• The most effective routes of administration must be determined

Pharmaceutical Dosage Form

Introduction of the Scientific Viewpoint

• The Sweedish, Karl Wilhelm Scheele is one of the most famous

• The isolation of morphine from opium by the German

• Contemporary examples of drug isolated form natural sources:

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