pioneers of pharmocology

[nishom]

Muslim pharmacy (Saydalah) as a profession with a separate entity from medicine was recognized by the beginning of the third/ninth century. This century not only saw the founding and the increase in the number of privately owned pharmacy shops in Baghdad and its vicinity, but in other Muslim cities as well. Many of the pharmacists who managed them were skilled in the apothecary's art and quite knowledgeable in the compounding, storing, and preserving of drugs.

State-sponsored hospitals also had their own dispensaries attached to manufacturing laboratories where syrups, electuaries, ointments, and other pharmaceutical preparations were prepared on a relatively large scale. The pharmacists and their shops were periodically inspected by a government appointed official "al-Muhtasib" an his aides. These officials were to check for accuracy the weights and measures as well as the purity of the drugs used. Such supervision was intended to prevent the use of deteriorating compounded drugs and syrups, and to safeguard the public.

This early rise and development of professional pharmacy in Islam - over four centuries before such development took place in Europe - was the result of three major occurrences: the great increase in the demand for drugs and their availability on the market; professional maturity; and the outgrowth of intellectual responsibility by qualified pharmacists.

The third/ninth century in Muslim lands witnessed the richest period thus far in literary productivity insofar as pharmacy and the healing arts were concerned. This prolific intellectual activity paved the way for still a greater harvest in the succeeding four centuries of both high and mediocre caliber authorship. For pharmacy, manuals on materia medica and for instructing the pharmacist concerning the work and management of his shop were circulating in increasing numbers. Only a few authors and their important works will be briefly discussed and evaluated.


Abu Hasan At-Tabari:

One of the contributors to Muslim Pharmacy was Abu Hasan 'Ali at-Tabari . He was born in 192/808. At about thirty years of age, he was summoned to Samarra by caliph al-Mu'tasim (217-227/833-842), where he served as a statesman and a physician. At-Tabari wrote several medical books, the most famous of which is his Paradise of Wisdom, completed in 235/850. It contains discussions on the nature of man, cosmology, embryology, temperaments, psychotherapy, hygiene, diet, and diseases - acute and chronic - and their treatment, medical anecdotes, and abstracts and quotations from Indian source material. In addition, the book contains several chapters on materia medica, cereals, diets, utilities and therapeutic uses of animal and bird organs, and of drugs and methods of their preparation.

At- Tabari urged that the therapeutic value of each drug be utilized in accordance with the particular case, and the practitioner should always choose the best of samples. He explained that the finest types of samples come from various places: black myrobalan comes from Kabul; clover dodder from Crete; aloes from Socotra; and aromatic spices from India.

He was also precise in describing his therapeutics. He said, 'I have tried a very useful remedy for swelling of the stomach; the juices of the liverwort (water hemp) and the absinthium after being boiled on fire and strained to be taken for several days. Also powdered seeds of celery (marsh parsley) mixed with giant fennel made into troches and taken with a suitable liquid release the wind in the stomach, joints and back (arthritis).

To strengthen the stomach and to insure good health he prescribed 'black myrobalan powdered in butter, mixed with dissolved plant sugar extracted from the licorice and that this remedy should be taken daily.' For storage purposes he recommended glass or ceramic vessels for liquid (wet) drugs; special small jars for eye liquid salves; lead containers for fatty substances. For the treatment of ulcerated wounds, he prescribed an ointment made of juniper-gum, fat, butter, and pitch. In addition, he warned that one mithqal (about 4 grams) of opium or henbane causes sleep and also death.

The first medical formulary to be written in Arabic is al-Aqrabadhin by Sabur b. Sahl (d. 255/869). In it, he gave medical recipes stating the methods and techniques of compounding these remedies, their pharmacological actions, the dosages given of each, and the means of administration. The formulas are organized in accordance with their types of preparations into which they fit, whether tablets, powders, ointments, electuaries or syrups. Each class of pharmaceutical preparation is represented along with a variety of recipes made in a specific form; they vary, however, in the ingredients used and their recommended uses and therapeutic effects. Many of these recipes and their pharmaceutical forms are remindful of similar formulas given in ancient documents from the Middle East and the Greco-Roman civilizations. What is unique is the organization of Sabur's formulary-type compendium purposely written as a guidebook for pharmacists, whether in their own private drugstores or in hospital pharmacies.

[Nσσя'υℓ Jαииαн]

Good post! Just the field I'm pursuing, InshAllah!
Jazak Allah

[sister_fatimah]

:w:


thanks for sharing, im pharmacist :)

i will share it with the guys from my job , insha allah

[Nafiisah]

JazaakAllah for this