DEFINITIONS OF PHARMACEUTICAL TERMS PREPARED BY DR RAMYA

DEFINITIONS OF PHARMACEUTICAL TERMS PREPARED BY DR. RAMYA. S. S

HOMOEOPATHIC PHARMACY MAY BE DEFINED AS THE ART AND SCIENCE OF IDENTIFYING, COLLECTING, PREPARING, PRESERVING, EVALUATING, STANDARDISING AND DISPENSING OF HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICINES. IT ALSO EMBRACES THE LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL ASPECTS AND REGULATION OF PROPER DISTRIBUTION OF MEDICINES

PHARMACIST �A person, who is skilled or engaged in pharmacy � one who prepares or dispenses medicine � One who is legally qualified to sell medicines

PHARMACOPOEIA � It is the supreme authoritative book, published by an authority, government of any country that deals with the rules and regulations of standardizations of drug substances. It contains directions for collection of drug substances from different sources, their preparation, preservation and standards that determine their strength and purity.

� PHARMACAL – Pertaining to pharmacy or drugs � PHARMACEUTICS – Branch of medical science which deals with preparation and use of drugs � PHARMACEUTIST – A person having knowledge of preparing medicines � PHARMACO-CHEMISTRY – Branch of pharmacology dealing with chemical composition of drugs

� SYNONYM –A regional name rejected due to misuse or difference in taxonomic judgement. 2 or more names given to same plant � Coffea cruda – Coffea cruda( coffee, Café, kaffee), Malabar nut for Justicia adathoda, Devil tree or Dita bark for Alstonia scholaris COMMON NAME – The name in which a plant is known among lay men or common people. Are made up of words from native language of the country. eg – Thulasi for Ocimum sanctum, chilly for capsicum anuum, Ulli for Allium cepa, Veluthulli(M) and Vellaipundu(T) for Allium sativum(garlic)

Scientific name( Botanical Name) � � � Consists of two parts First part – GENERIC NAME Second part – SPECIES NAME Apis mellifica for Honey bee Ocimum sanctum for thulsi The system of giving animals or plants a name consisting of two parts is called Binomial system of nomencalture and is introduced by Linnaeus.

NOSODES – Homoeopathic medicine prepared from diseased tissue and disease causing organism SARCODES – Homoeopathic medicine prepared from healthy tissue IMPONDERABILIA – Medicines prepared from immaterial dynamic energies. eg – sun’s rays TAUTOLOGY – Medicine prepared from allopathic medicines

� PHARMACO-GENETICS – Study of genetic variations produced in man and organisms in response to drugs � PHARMACOGRAPHY – A treatise on or description of drugs � PHARMACOLOGIST – A person having knowledge of drugs, their sources, appearance, chemistry and action

� PHARMACOMANIA - Abnormal tendency for taking drugs � PHARMACOPEDICS – The teaching of pharmacy � PHARMACOPHILIA – Self – drugging carried to the degree of insanity � PHARMACOPHOBIA medicines – Morbid dread of

� PHARMACOPHORE – The group of atoms in the molecule of a drug which cause therapeutic effect � PHARMACOPRAXY – It is an art or science by which crude drug substances are converted into real medicines � PHARMACOPSYCHOSIS – A mental disease due to alcohol, drugs or poison addiction

� PHARMACO-RADIOGRAPHY – X-ray examination of a body or organ under the influence of a drug � PHARMACOTHERAPY – Treatment of disease with medicines � PHARMACOLOGY – Branch of medical science which deals with drugs, their sources, appearance, chemistry, preparations, actions and therapeutic uses

� PHARMACOGNOSY – It is the science which deals with the history, source, cultivation, collection, preparation, distribution, identification, composition, purity, preservation and commerce of crude drugs of vegetable and animal origin � PHARMACODYNAMICS – Branch of Homoeopathic pharmacology, which helps us to acquire knowledge of dynamic action and effects of drugs on healthy organisms

� PHARMACONOMY – Deals with the study of channels or route of administrations of medicines � PHARMACOPOLLAXY – Deals with the study of repetition of doses � POSOLOGY – Study of doses and the dose is the quantity of medicine taken or given at a time

� VEHICLE – Substances which are chemically neutral, therapeutically inert, having no medicinal property of their own but are intended to carry the dynamic power of a drug safely to the interior of the human organism to fight the disease force � MOTHER TINCTURE – It is a drug, pharmaceutically prepared from drug substances of vegetable and animal kingdom using strong alcohol as a vehicle(solvent) by the process of immersion, maceration and percolation

� ACTIVE PRINCIPLE – The potent chemical constituents of the drug that is individual to a drug and are responsible for the pharmacodynamic action of the drug. Eg; Alkaloid ( Morphine in opium) � ALKALOIDS – Are the organic nitrogenous substances, alkaline in action and are the secondary metabolites of a plant. Alkaloids are the active principles of many drugs. Eg; Atropine in Atropa Belladona

� DECANTATION – Is a process of slowly and carefully pouring out supernatant liquid from one vessel to another without disturbing the sediments that have been accumulated at the bottom of the liquid. � FILTRATION – Is an efficient physical process separation of a liquid from substances insoluble in that liquid with the help of a filtering medium through only the liquid (filtrate) can pass but not the other substances (residue) insoluble in that liquid.

� DISTILLATION – Is a process of converting a liquid into vapour and condensing the vapour back into a liquid. � SUBLIMATION – Is the process of distilling a solid into a vapour and condensing the vapour back to a solid. � DESICCATION – Is a process of removing water from a substance at moderate temperature using the apparatus, dessicator

� CRYSTALLISATION – Is the process of separating substances in forms possesing definite geometric shapes( crystals ) MACERATION - It is the long process of preparation of mother tincture in modern method from vegetable and animal sources using strong alcohol as solvent under N. T. P. by keeping the drug in contact with menstrum for several days with frequent agitation

PERCOLATION - It is a short process of extracting the soluble constituents of a drug and preparing the mother tincture by the passage of a solvent through the Powdered drug contained in a suitable apparatus called percolator for a definite period of time as per directions specified in Pharmacopoeia.

� DYNAMISATION � It is a mathemetico- mechanical process by virtue of which the inherited dormant dynamic curative power of drugs is aroused or increased by modifying drug strength through simultaneous and successive process of dilution, agitation and grinding in definite order according to Pharmacopoeia

SUCCUSSION -. DEFINITION: It is an ideal mathematico-mechanical process of potentization, by which preparation of medicine takes place by the use of a liquid vehicle like alcohol or water, by shaking in definite method according to Pharmacopoeia. SCALES ; Decimal , Centesimal and 50 millesimal

TRITURATION : It is an ideal mathematico-mechanical process of potentization, by which preparation of medicine takes place by the use of a solid vehicle like sugar of milk, by grinding in definite order according to Pharmacopoeia. SCALES – Decimal and centesimal

� DRUG STRENGTH – The strength of a drug in given potency or mother tincture. It is the quantity of drug in proportion to solvent. Eg; 1/10, 1/100 � DRUG - Drug is a therapeutic agent prepared pharmaceutically from stardardised drug substances according to the rules and regulations of pharmacopoeia, which is sufficiently capable of producing alteration of vital force producing altered sensations and functions and if continued for a sufficient time and large dose produces structural changes and even death of the organism.

� MEDICINE - When a drug has been potentised homoeopathically � Proved on healthy human beings ◦ Both sexes, all ages and different constitutions ◦ Producing signs and symptoms during drug proving ◦ Recorded in stardard books of materia medica ◦ Symptoms collected by drug proving, observed to have cured by medicines during their administration to sick person, during poisonings on humans or animals or symptoms observed accidentally.

� REMEDY - When a particular medicine is prescribed for a particular diseased condition, according to symptom similarity and when the diseased condition is cured totally, the medicine is called the remedy of that particular case. � The indicated medicine is called remedy. � A medicine becomes a remedy when it satisfies symptom similarity and cures a natural disease.