University of Algiers 1

Pharmacy Graduation Studies

Introduction to the course:

History of Pharmacy

Dr. Fiala Sarah, MPharm, PhD November 2023

Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery

By the end of this lecture, you will be able to :

 Identify the objectives of the course;

 Identify major chronological milestones;

 Convert temporal units years/centuries (Recall);

 Define some key concepts in pharmacy.

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Exact title of the course:

« Social science :

History of pharmacy and galenics »

History of pharmacy
The course (module)
 Theoretical teaching (no tutorial/ practical sessions)
 Duration → 20 hours (10 sessions)
 Coefficient → 1
 Evaluation → 1 Exam (march 2024)
 Resit → June 2024

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Teaching objectives
Objective of the 1st year of pharmacy:
Acquire fundamental knowledge for understanding
pharmaceutical sciences.

Objective of the “History of Pharmacy” course:

Summarize the evolution of pharmacy practice
throughout the ages in:
• the East and the West,

• the world and Algeria.

Pharmacy evolution
throughout the ages

Middle Modern Contemporary

Prehistory antiquity
Ages era period

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 Delimitation of Periods

Year 1789
Year -3000

year 1492
year 476

Contemporary period
Modern era
Pre Middles
history
Antiquity
ages

Chronological diagram of the different history eras

Course program
1. Introduction and general concepts
2. Pharmacy during antiquity in the East (Mesopotamia, Egypt)

3. Pharmacy during antiquity in the West (Greco-Roman)

4. Pharmacy in the Arab-Muslim world

5. Pharmacy in the middle ages and modern era (until the 18th
century).
6. The scientific period

7. Major therapeutic discoveries

8. The industrialisation of medicine production

9. Pharmacy education and hospital pharmacy

10. Pharmacy in Algeria

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Recall
 Abbreviations
B.C. = Before Jesus Christ (‫)قبل الميﻼد‬
A.D. = (anno domini) After Jesus Christ (‫)بعد الميﻼد‬

 Numbering of years according to the Gregorian calendar:

Among historians, year zero does not exist.
 The timeline moves from year -1 to year 1.

Year 1 BC Year 1 AD

Recall
Numbering of centuries

 The first century of the calendar extends from year 1 to

year 100 inclusive.

1st century 2nd century 3rd century

from year 1 to from the year from the year …..etc
100 101 to 200 201 to 300

Ex :
o Year 115 AD is part of the 2nd century AD

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 Recall
 Conversely, the 1st century BC. extends from year -100
to year -1 inclusive.

3rd century BC from 2nd century BC from 1st century BC from

the year -300 to -201 the year -200 to -101 year -100 to -1

Ex :
o year -530 B.C. is part of the 6th century B.C.

Terminology used in this course

 Pharmacy ;

 Pharmaceutics / Galenic Pharmacy ;

 Medicine ;

 Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API);

 Excipients ;

 Pharmacopea.

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Pharmacy
Etymology

 The word “pharmacy” is derived from the Greek

“pharmakôn” meaning drug, venom or poison.

 Drug: “any substance having a medicinal property/

therapeutic effect on the body”
A substance that treats!

Drug

The term “active ingredient” is interchangeably used

with “drug substance” in pharmaceutical practice

 Drug Substance = API

 Drug Product = Final Product

= Medicine
= Medication

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Current dictionary definition of the word
“Pharmacy” :

 “Science applied to the design, preparation and

distribution of medicines”

 This science has developed over the ages in

order to meet the need for effective, safe, quality
pharmaceutical products, prepared and
dispensed by qualified personnel.

The term « Pharmacy » can mean :

 the science
or
 the premises (chemist’s)

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Pharmaceutics / Galenic Pharmacy
This name comes from Galen, a scientist from
Minor Asia, who was a physician to the Roman
emperors in the 2nd century AD.

Galen was the first to describe the composition and

way of obtaining medicines.

Pharmaceutics “or Galenic pharmacy” is the science

which studies the preparation of medicines.

Pharmaceutics / Galenic Pharmacy

 For a long time, every pharmacist was a galenist,
and galenic pharmacy was an art, since it
involved producing in small quantities complex,
poorly defined drugs of plant or animal origin.

 Today, medicines are manufactured industrially in

thousands of copies.

 Pharmaceutics has become a science!

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Medicine (drug product)
“A medicine is a product: Prepared and
presented to cure or prevent disease; Or
administered for the purpose of establishing a
diagnosis; Or administered to restore, correct
or modify the organic functions of man or
animal. »

Algerian Health Regulation 2018

Medicine Components
 A medicine acts through one or more constituents
called active pharmceutical ingredients (drug
substance/ substance with therapeutic
properties).

 This substance can be of :

 natural origin (vegetal, animal, mineral);
 Synthetic (chemical);
 From biotechnology.

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Medicine Components
 APIs are rarely used directly.

 It is necessary to “formulate” the drug product

suitable for administration.

 In general, the API(s) are associated with one

or more excipients.

Excipients
 from Latin excipere = to receive (the excipient
receives the API)

 These are auxiliary substances, i.e. biologically

inactive, but which facilitate the preparation and
use of the medicine.

 The excipients and API(s) are raw materials.

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Medecine presentation
 The medicine is presented in a pharmaceutical
form (also called dosage form or galenic form).

 This is the individual form in which the active

ingredients (API) and excipients are formulated
to constitute a medicine.

 It corresponds to the final physical appearance

of the medication: tablets, capsules, oral
solutions, etc.

Different Galenic forms

Soft Capsule
Hard Capsule

Inhaler

Syrup Tablets

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Packaging Material

 All the elements of medicine protection,

presentation and identification.

 designed for a better use of the medicine.

Packaging

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 Active Substance(s)

Pharmaceutical form
Excipients

Technology

Packaging

Medicine

Pharmacopoeia

Historically, the term pharmacopoeia

designates an encyclopedic work mainly
listing plants for therapeutic use, but also
substances of animal or mineral origin.

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Pharmacopoeia

Nowadays, a pharmacopoeia is a regulatory work

intended to define the official characteristics of raw
materials or preparations authorized in a country
or in a group of countries for the manufacture of
medicines.

National Pharmacopoeia

 French Pharmacopoeia
 British Pharmacopoeia: BP
 American Pharmacopoeia: USP
 Japanese Pharmacopoeia: JP
 Helvetic Pharmacopoeia (Switzerland)

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International Pharmacopoeia

 European
Pharmacopoeia,
published by the
European Council.

 International
Pharmacopoeia,
published by the World
Health Organization
(WHO).

Conclusion
 The aim of this introductory session was to familiarise
the students with this new course, as well as the
terminology used.

 The following lectures will be in chronological order, and

follow the evolution of pharmacy (and medicine)
throughout the different eras.

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