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Department of Pharmacognosy



Pharmacognosy is the study of medicines or crude drugs produced from natural sources such as plants, microbes, and animals. It includes analysis of their biological, chemical, biochemical, and physical properties.

Traditional medicine is also a part of pharmacognosy and most of the third world countries still depend on the use of herbal medicines. Consequently, pharmacognosy always keeps its popularity in pharmaceutical sciences and plays a critical role in drug discovery.

It is believed that the human body finds plant-derived medicines easier to accept due to the fact that they exist in nature and are not synthetic. Many of the ayurvedic scientists in India still prescribe plant-based products. Ancient scriptures like Sushrut and Charak sanhita finds mention of plant-based products. Early mention of surgeries is also found in these scriptures.

Plants have been always used as medicine by mankind to treat health-threatening diseases and still popular to obtain new drug candidates as it is the oldest medical practice for humans. The use of botanical natural health products is on the increase all over the world. It is known that almost 80% of the populations in developing countries rely on the traditional medicine, mainly composing herbal prescriptions

A pharmacognosist studies all the plant-based insect based and animal based natural products.