| Term Paper Title |
The History Of Phamaceutical Compounding |
| # of Words |
3894 |
| # of Pages (250 words per page double spaced) |
15.58 |
The History of Phamaceutical Compounding
The profession of pharmacy was founded in the art and science of compounding
medications. The beginning of compounding dates back to medieval times with priests,
monks, and medicine men. Specialization first occurred in the early 9th century in the
civilized world around Baghdad. Over time it gradually spread to Europe as alchemy
evolved into chemistry as doctors began to abandon beliefs that were not demonstrable in
the physical world. During this time, doctors began prescribing medications to patients.
Pharmacists then began compounding these prescriptions and producing them in mass
quantities for general sale. It was not until the 19th century that there was a distinct
difference between the pharmacist as a compounder of medications and the physician as
the therapist.
In the 1930’s and 1940’s, approximately 60 percent of all medications dispensed were
compounded. Then in the 1950s and 1960s, with the creation of commercial drug
manufacturers, compounding declined. It was during this time that a pharmacist, known as
a compounder or apothecary, became known as a dispenser of manufactured drugs. In the
1980’s and now in the 1990’s, patients and doctors are realizing the need for specific
doses and customized medications. Today, almost 43,000 compounded dosage forms are
dispensed each day. In the 1990’s, even with the popularity of compounding growing
again only a few pharmacists can be known as a compounder or apothecary, because this
technique was forgotten by most.
The Evolution of the Word "Pharmacy"
It is from this evolution of a pharmacist being the maker and compounder of
medications that the word pharmacy is defined. The word pharmacy is defined as "the art
of preparing and dispensing drugs or a place where drugs are sold; a drugstore." The word
pharmacy originates from the Greek word pharmakon or remedy. There has
been some arguments that the word pharmacy came from the Egyptian term
ph-ar-maki or the bestower of security, which the god Thoth, patron of physicians,
conferred as approbation on a ferryman who had managed a safe crossing. However, the
word pharmacy and its many cognates derived, like many of the other scientific terms,
most likely originates from the Greeks.
It is impossible to put a exact date when the word pharmacy originated since people were
practicing medicine before the word even existed. Priests and Doctors in the medieval
times were combining different ingredients or compounding, but was it called
compounding, we are not sure. The Artisans of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China were the
first known people to actually carry out chemical processes. Most of these people worked
in the temples and palaces, making luxury goods for priests and nobles. Priests also
speculated on all the changes that were going on in the world about them. Their theories
often involved magic. However, some of these theories are now considered chemical.
Greeks Think Scientifically
The Greeks were the first culture to think scientifically and not just rely on myths
to explain occurrences. This began during the time of Thales about 600 B.C. Thales
believed that all matter was derived from water, which could evaporate into the air or
dissolve into the earth. His successors expanded on this theory and came up with the idea
of the four elements that composed the earth: earth, water, air, and fire. With this scientific
break through, others like Democritus thought these elements were composed of atoms
with minute particles moving in a vacuum. Aristotle believed that the elements formed a
continuum of mass and therefore a vacuum could not exist. Slowly, the atomic idea was
lost by the Greeks, but it was revived in the Renaissance once again.
Today, the modern pharmacist deals with more complex pharmaceutical remedies than the
elixirs, spirits, and powders described in the Pharmacopoeia of London (1618) and the
Pharmacopoeia ...Read entire document
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