Pharmacognosy

Pharmacognosy is the study of crude drugs obtained from medicinal plants, animals, fungi, and other natural sources.^[1]

The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical, and biological properties of drugs, drug substances, or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well as the search for new drugs from natural sources".^[2]

The word "pharmacognosy" is derived from two Greek words: φάρμακον, pharmakon (drug), and γνῶσις gnosis (knowledge) or the Latin verb cognosco (con, 'with', and , 'know'; itself a cognate of the Greek verb γι(γ)νώσκω, gi(g)nósko, meaning 'I know, perceive'),^[3] meaning 'to conceptualize' or 'to recognize'.^[4]

The term "pharmacognosy" was used for the first time by the German physician Johann Adam Schmidt (1759-1809) in his published book Lehrbuch der Materia Medica in 1811, and by Anotheus Seydler in 1815, in his Analecta Pharmacognostica.