Question

Pharmacology: Briefly describe the basic principles of pharmacotherapeutics, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmagognosy in an essay.

Answer 1

Pharmacology is the branch of biology that deals with the study of drug. The word “drug” is derived from a French word ‘drogue’ which means dry herb. It also tells about the action of drug, how drug can be defined such as man- made, natural or endogenous molecule which exerts physiological or biochemical effect on cell, tissue, organ or an organism.

The birth of pharmacology is not clear. But in early 19th century, many pharmacological studies were done by the physiologist. In 1928, Friedrich Wohler synthesised urea from inorganic substances. Pharmacology have many branches. They are pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, Therapeutics, Chemotherapy, Toxicology, Clinical pharmacology, Pharmacy, Pharmacognosy, pharmacogenetics, pharmacoeconomics, pharmacoepidemiology, comparative epidemiology, comparative pharmacology, Animal pharmacology, Pharmacoeconomics and Posology.

Pharmacotherapeutics is the branch of pharmacology which deals with the study of therapeutic uses and adverse effects of the drugs. It tells us about the indications of giving a particular drug.

Pharmacokinetics is the branch of pharmacology which deals with the action of drug I.e., what a drug does to a person and how it helps to treat or cure a disease. Pharmacokinetics have four phases. They are absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion. Absorption is how the drug is taken up by the body into the blood stream from the site of administration. Distribution is how the drug is distributed to the cells through the blood stream. Metabolism is the chemical reaction that takes place in a person’s body in which complex molecules are broken down to produce energy. Excretion is the removal of metabolites or drug from the body. Metabolism mainly occurs in the liver. Any problems in the liver decreases the metabolism of the drug which increases the circulatory drug level that leads to adverse effects. The organ responsible for excretion is the kidney. When there is problem in kidney function the circulatory drug volume will increase which leads to complication.

Pharmacodynamics is the branch of pharmacology which deals with physiological and biochemical effects of a drug. It tells about how a drug affects an organism. Pharmacodynamics emphasises on dose response relationship between drug concentration and drug effect.

pharmacognosy is the study of drugs produced from natural sources such as plants, animals and microbes. It includes the analysis of the physical, biological, biochemical and chemical properties of a drug. Human body accepts the drug formed from plants than the synthetic one. Most of the medications derived from plants are from the leaves, flowers, roots or the stem.

Hence Pharmacology have various branches and each deals with various aspects related to drug and its effects.