Pharmacology (from Greek цЬсмбкпн - drug, poison and льгпт - word, knowledge) is a science concerned with medicinal substances and their effects on living organisms; in a wider sense, it is a science studying physiologically active substances in general and their effect on biological systems in particular.
The history of pharmacology is inextricably intertwined with the history of mankind. Prehistoric people relied on their self-preservation instinct to find remedies against diseases. In search for food, ancient people empirically identified presence of medicinal or poisonous properties in plants, berries, sunlight, parts of animals (liver, fat, bone marrow) as well as in minerals, and learned to use them to treat diseases. Medicinal substances were first known only in the form of raw or primitively processed products of mineral, plant or animal origin. As early as in the ancient times, their aggregate knowledge was termed materia medica ("description of medicinal plants").
The primary concern of people was to obtain analgesics. Aborigines of America empirically discovered natural narcotic remedies and used them to alleviate pain. For instance, Aztec healers traditionally used varieties of cacti in the form of juices and infusions; this fact amazed Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, since Europe didnot knowany effective methods of analgesia at that time. The medicinal properties of Cinchona bark in treatment of tropic malaria were first discovered by Incas (fig. 1), although the active ingredient of quinine was first extracted from the bark and finally isolated only in 1820.
Tea, rhubarb, castor-oil plant, male fern, santonica wormwood, opium, henbane, tannins and mercury were used for medical purposes. These medications were known back in the old days in China, India, Egypt, and Greece. At about the same time people discovered plants able to irritate the gastrointestinal tract, stimulating properties of the coca leaf, and plants with narcogenic potential such as poppy, can-nabis or tobacco.