The word "pharmacognosy" derives from the Greek words pharmakon (drug), and gnosis or "knowledge". The term pharmacognosy was used for the first time by the Austrian physician Schmidt in 1811. Originally - during the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century - "pharmacognosy" was used to define the branch of medicine or commodity sciences ("Warenkunde" in German) which dealt with drugs in their crude, or unprepared, form. Crude drugs are the dried, unprepared material of plant, animal or mineral origin, used for medicine. The study of pharmakognosie was first developed in German-speaking areas of Europe. The term drogenkunde ("science of crude drugs") is also used synonymously.
Although most pharmacognostic studies focus on plants and medicines derived from plants, other types of organisms are also regarded as pharmacognostically interesting, in particular, various types of microbes (bacteria, fungi, etc.), and, recently, various marine organisms.
Pharmacognosy is interdisciplinary, drawing on a broad spectrum of biological and socio-scientific subjects, including botany, ethnobotany, medical anthropology, marine biology, microbiology, herbal medicine, chemistry (phytochemistry), pharmacology, pharmaceutics, clinical pharmacy and pharmacy practice. The contemporary study of pharmacognosy can be divided into the fields of
medical ethnobotany: the study of the traditional use of plants for medicinal purposes;
ethnopharmacology: the study of the pharmacological qualities of traditional medicinal substances;
the study of phytotherapy (the medicinal use of plant extracts); and
phytochemistry, the study of chemicals derived from plants (including the identification of new drug candidates derived from plant sources).
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