From Pharmacognosia to DNA-Based Medicinal Plant Authentication - Pharmacognosy through the Centuries.

For centuries, pharmacognosy was essential for the identification, quality, purity, and, until the end of the 18th century, even for the efficacy of medicinal plants. Since the 19th century, it concentrated on authenticity, purity, quality and the analysis of active substances, and was established as an academic branch discipline within pharmacy and continuously developed into a modern, highly sophisticated science. Even though the paradigm in pharmacy changed in the 19th century with the discovery of morphine and concentrated on single substances that could be synthesized fast by the upcoming industry, medicinal plants always remained an important element of the Materia medica, and during the last decades, medicinal plants continue to be a source of remedies, and natural products are an inspiration for new medicine. In this research, pharmacognostic skills remain an essential element, both with regards to identity, quality assurance of botanicals (both herbal medicines and supplements), and the discovery and development of new medicines. Over the years, the specific pharmacognostical tools have changed dramatically, and most recently, DNA-based techniques have become another element of our spectrum of scientific methods.

[In process.] / Missionspharmazie Wissensaustausch - Wissensbildung -Wissenstransfer.

Missionary pharmacy developed as a special type of the European pharmacy from the 16th to the 18th centuries in the overseas missions in the context of the proclamation of the Christian faith, the European expansion and the beginning globalization. As this type of pharmacy was determined by the specific circumstances of the medical-pharmaceutical situation in the mission countries as well as by the knowledge of the missionaries themselves, it can be defined as missionary pharmacy. It followed principally the model of the medieval monastery pharmacy and paved the way for the Medical Mission at the beginning of the 19th century. Different lines of development on various levels of exchange, forming, documenting and transmission of knowledge shaped the concept of the missionary pharmacy. The activities in the context of the missionary pharmacy initiated a global transfer of drugs and the referring pharmaceutical knowledge, which was institutionalized by the pharmacies of the Jesuits and essentially influenced the development of the Materiae medicae and the development of modern pharmacy all around the globe. The trading routes of typical drugs like the Fever bark and compositions can reconstruct this international transfer of knowledge. Still nowadays, knowledge of the missionary pharmacy, especially about genuine plants of the non-European countries, can be interesting for the development of new phytotherapeutics and possibly active substances.

Forming, transfer and globalization of medical-pharmaceutical knowledge in South East Asian missions (17th to 18th c.) - historical dimensions and modern perspectives.

From the 17th to the 18th centuries, missionaries in Southeast Asia dedicated themselves to providing and establishing a professional medical-pharmaceutical supply for the local population and therefore explored the genuine Materia medica for easily available and affordable remedies, especially medicinal plants. In characteristic medical-pharmaceutical compendia, which can be classified as missionary pharmacopoeias, they laid down their knowledge to advise others and to guarantee a professional health care. As their knowledge often resulted from an exchange with indigenous communities, these compendia provide essential information about traditional plant uses of Southeast Asian people. Individual missionaries such as the Jesuit Georg Joseph Kamel (1661-1706) not only strove to explore medicinal plants but performed botanical studies and even composed comprehensive herbals. The Jesuit missionaries in particular played roles in both the order's own global network of transfer of medicinal drugs and knowledge about the application, and within the contemporary local and European scientific networks which included, for example, the famous Royal Society of London. The results of their studies were distributed all over the world, were introduced into the practical Materia medica of other regions, and contributed significantly to the academization of knowledge. In our article we will explain the different intentions and methods of exploring, the resulting works and the consequences for the forming of the pharmaceutical and scientific knowledge. Finally, we will show the options which the works of the missionaries can offer for the saving of traditional ethnopharmacological knowledge and for the development of modern phytotherapeutics and pharmaceutical supply. The publication is based on a comprehensive study on the phenomenon of missionary pharmacy which has been published as a book in 2011 (Anagnostou, 2011a) and shows now the potential of historical medical-pharmaceutical works written in the Asian missions of the 17th to 18th century and influenced by ethnopharmaceutical knowledge and the relevance of historical studies for modern investigation in phytotherapy.

Los libros sobre las drogas americanas en la Biblioteca Histórica de la Farmacia Suiza / Books on American drugs in the historical library of the Switzerland pharmacy

Fundada en el año 2008, la Biblioteca Histórica de la Farmacia Suiza, situada en el instituto de Historia de la Medicina de la Universidad de Berna, tiene un fondo de más de 6000 obras. Entre ellas se encuentran algunos libros que se dedican a las drogas sudamericanas. Aparte de las obras de Nicolás Monardes, también existen otras de la farmacognosia europea de finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX. Este trabajo ilustra la importancia de la transferencia de conocimientos usando la Biblioteca Histórica helvética como ejemplo

Institute houses the Historical Library of the Swiss Pharmacy, founded in 2008, for the History of Medicine of the University of Berne provides an impressive collection of more than 6000 works. Among them are some books that deal with South American drugs. Besides the famous works by Nicolás Monardes and their translations, there are also a corpus of books representing the European pharmacognosy by the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. This paper is dedicated to the transfer of scientific knowledge reflected by the works in the Helvetic historical library

Maracujá, granadilla, flor de la pasión: the historical tradition of the Passionflower in medicine and pharmacy in America and Europe

It traces back the long history of Passionflower in medicine and pharmacy in Europe and America, showing that the folkloric medicine and the ethnomedicine of many different peoples can provide modern medicine with useful remedies.(AU)