HISTORY OF PHARMACALOGY

• Oswald Schmiedberg – Father of Pharmacology
• Col. Ramnath Chopra – Father of Indian Pharmacology
• Sir James Black – Father of Modern Pharmacology
• Clark – Gave Theory of drug action based on occupation of receptors by specific drugs.
• Otto Loewi – Direct proof of transmission across nerve junctions to be mediated by neurotransmitters.
• Ahlquist – Classified adrenergic receptors into α and β types.
• Bergstrom, Samuelsson and Vane – Noble prize for work on PGs and LTs.
• Banting and Best – Discovered insulin in 1921
• Sanger – Worked out chemical structure of insulin in 1956
• Kendall, Reichstein and Hench – Noble Prize for work on corticosteroids in Rheumatoid arthritis.
• Lundy – Coined the term balanced anesthesia.
• Horace Wells – Used N2O (laughing gas) in 1844 for dental anesthesia.
• Guedel – Described 4 stages of anesthesia with Ether.
• Serturner – Isolated active principle of opium and named it morphine after Greek God of dreams (Morpheus)
• William Withering – Published his work on medicinal uses of Foxglove (digitalis) named ‘An account of the Foxglove and some of its medicinal uses: with practical remarks on dropsy and other diseases.
• Vaughan Williams and Singh – Classification of anti-arrhythmic drugs
• Ehrlich – Coined the term chemotherapy.
  – Used the idea that if certain dyes can selectively stain microbes, they can also be toxic to these microbes.
  – Developed arsenic compounds (Salvarsan) for treatment of syphilis.
• Domagk – (a) Ushered the Modern era of chemotherapy.
  (b) Demonstrated therapeutic effect of prontosil (containing sulfonamide) in pyogenic infections.
• Fleming – Discovered penicillin
• Walksman – Discovered streptomycin

1. Essential Drugs :
• First Model list by WHO in 1977
• First National EDL of India in 1996
• Current edition of India is 17th National list of Essential Medicines. It was modified in 2011. It contains 348 drugs

2. Uppsala Monitoring centre (sweden) is the international collaborating centre for Pharmacovigilance. In India it is Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO)

3. Vasomotor reversal of Dale was first demonstrated with ergot alkaloids.

4. Centchroman is a non-steroidal SERM developed at CDRI India as an oral contraceptive.

5. Synthetic toxin N-methyl-4-phenyl tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) produces nigrostrial degeneration and manifestations similar to Parkinson’s disease.

6. Blaud’s pills (for anemia) consists of FeSO4 and potassium carbonate.

7. Vitamin B12 is also known as Extrinsic factor of castle.

8. Vitamin K was isolated from alfa alfa grass.

9. Rat poison contains oral anticoagulants like warfarin.

10. Name of drug WARFARIN is coined from Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and its chemical structure being couma RIN.

11. New formula WHO-ORS was released in 2002. It contains low Na+ (75 mM), low glucose (75 mM) and has low osmolarity (245, mOsm/L).

12. 8-Hydroxyquinolines like quiniodochlor and iodoquinol were used in amoebic dysentery but were banned in Japan and few other countries because on long-term use these resulted in epidemics of Subacute Myelo-optic Neuropathy (SMON).

13. Thalidomide caused phocomelia in Germany in 1960s when it was used for treatment of vomiting due to morning sickness