The Romance of Pharmacy — All Races, All Nations Contribute to Chemist’s Stock

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1016, 5 July 1930, Page 22

The Romance of Pharmacy All Races, All Nations Contribute to Chemist’s Stock

(Written for TUB SUN by It. 10. COMBES, M. 8.5.) reaxy r OST people look upon the pharmaceutical chemist and his work as being shrouded in mystery. llVrNUlriKv Very few realise the important role he fills in any community. Even now very few have any conception of the training a man must undergo before he is permitted to style himself a chemist. In the early days, men learnt from their masters. Apprentices worked long hours and paid heavy premiums to be taught the art —for an art it is —of Pharmacy. Nowadays, although ihe principle is the same, the method is somewhat different. To begin with, matriculation is essential and after a trial the potential chemist is apprenticed for a period of four years to a registered member of the Phar maceutical Society. During that time instruction is given in all branches of the work The apprentice studies, first. Botany and Chemistry—organic, inorganic and practical. When he has successfully negotiated the exam nation in these subjects he transfers Itis attention to pharmaceutical sub jeers. These include materia medic-a. the science dealing with the nature, origin and preparation of medicinal substances: pharmacy, which is the art of preparing and mixing medicines A practical examination is held in which the candidate is called upon to ! prepare several prescriptions. • An oral test where the examiners are empowered searchingly to question the embryo pharmaceutical chemist, com- 1

pletes the ordeal. If successful, the candidate registers and becomes a member of the Pharmaceutical Society. and is then permitted to take charge of a chemist’s business. Tho chemists’ destinies are presided over by a board, which not only controls the individual chemist, but also does good work in assisting the Government in many important matters concerning pharmacy and public health. Primarily, the chemist is in busi ness to dispense prescriptions, and only a few realise just how romantic a document a doctor's prescription really is. It may call upon a dozen countries to supply the ingredients and as many nationalities may be en gaged in the collection, transportation, manufacture and purification before the finished product even reaches your druggist. Until comparatively recent years, medicinal preparations came almost wholly from the inorganic and the vegetable kingdoms, but today large quantities of drugs and chemicals are actually created in the laboratory Take coal tar, for example. It is difficult to realise that hundreds of preparations we use, such as aspirin, phenacetin. carbolic acid, photo graphic chemicals, and even perfumes have their origin in this black viscid substance? The Germans have always been particularly keen on research work along these lines. It is distinctly gratifying, however, to learn l hat British chemists have been doing wonderful work in this direction. Interesting as the field of synthetic drugs is, it is no more so than that

of the vegetable kingdom. thousands of years the healing properties of certain plants have been well known, and it is an astounding thing that even today we still use some of these remedies. Of course, research work has taught us much, and we are now able to compound preparations, from them, of greater concentration and purity. Some of the drugs from the vegetable world have Interesting histories. Time permits only a few to be mentioned. Quinine, the specific for malaria, and the favourite remedy for a common cold, has quite a commercial romance surrounding it. The cinchona tree is the source, and until the middle of the nineteenth century ail supplies came from South America. Wasteful methods employed in the collection of the bark threatened extinction. Attempts made to introduce the tree to other countries failed until finally Sir Clements Markham led an expedition into Peru and Bolivia. Although the natives were hostile and the Bolivian Government put every obstacle possible in his way—naturally they wanted to retain their monopoly—he evertually shipped away 450 trees. Most of them died, but those that lived thrived and now this wonderful tree does well in India, Burma, Ceylon, the West ludies and Java. Some say the early Jesuits discovered, or rather introduced, quinine. Tradition has it that its properties were made aware to them when a native chief treated one of the priests and cured him of the fever he was stricken with. Others say it was introduced by the Countess Cinchon—certainly the tree was

named after her. However, it was left to an English apothecary, Talbot, to popularise its use in England, and he won fame by curing Charles 11., and later Uouis XIV. of fever troubles. The active principles are easily extracted with acidulated water. Ipecac is a member of the same family and, although a native of Brazil, it is cultivated in India and Ceylon. Of late years a very valuable principal has been isolated from the ipecac root, emetine. This has a wonderful curative action in tropical dysentery. Opium is a drug we cannot pass over. We hear much abuse of it, and but little of the relief it has given to suffering humanity. It comes from a special poppy, and acres of these are cultivated in India and Turkey. At certain times the capsules are transversely cut. The juice which escapes is dried, and this is what we know as crude opium. From this we obtain morphia, codein and other pain-relieving drugs. Quite a few drug plants are cultivated in England. Belladonna, digita lis, peppermint, lavender and hyascyamus are examples, and their careful cultivation, collection, extraction and standardisation is in great contrast to the slip-shod fnethods employed till recently by the Japanese in the preparation of camphor. This industry was conducted along the most wasteful lines. Trees were cut down, chopped into chips and boiled in rough tubs. The camphorladen steam was carried along crude wooden pipes, where some of the camphor would be deposited, and the

remainder escape into tire air. The Jajjancse Government has changed this. Camphor trees now belong to the State, Up-to-date m'ethods have been introduced, and the wastage minimised. This necessary reform came not a moment too soon, for synthetic camphor—a laboratorycreated substance —has been more or less popular, but I think the Japanese have the industry well In hand, and will be able to compete successfully with the manufactured article. Get us take you on a quick drug tour of the world. In Africa you will find aloe-trees being slashed, and the exuding juice collected and dried in the sun or over slow fires, and finally packed into skins, gourds, or boxes, ready for export to England. Up around the great Lake Nyanza, straphanthus seeds are being gathered and packed in bags. In warlike days the natives poisoned their arrows by dipping the points into a preparation they made from these seeds. India is busy among other things with senna leaves, cardomoms and opium. Ceylon supplies us with the best cinnamon. while away in Persia beetles assist in tlie collection of ammoniaeum, a gum-resinous substance. These beetles puncture the stem of a particular tree and the sap oozes out. hardens in the sun, and soon falls to the ground The native collectors are not particular w-hat they pick up, and commercial samples often contain a few stones. These bring the weight up, and the primitive mind, not being able to distinguish quantity and quality, is gladdened. The island of Java is now a huge quinine pro-

ducing country, giving Holland a large say in the marketing of this drug. Europe sends up anethi and aniseed, aconite and eamamile. The United States is represented with cascara, and South America with cocaine and santonin. Sufficient has been told to let you see that drugs are collected from all parts of the world and by all races of mankind. It is to London and Mincing Lane in particular, the recognised headquarters of the drug buyers, that drugs and chemicals in packages of all kinds find their way. Sales are held each month and it is on record that little actually changes hands at the auction, but large quantities are disposed of privately. It is not so long ago since drugs were sold “by the candle.” An inch of candle was lighted and bids were received until it burnt out. Records have it that the last flicker was always accompanied by considerable noise and confusion among the bidders, and one can readily imagine the frequent predicaments the auctioneer and his staff found themselves in. . It may be supposed that these ordinary collections are typical chemists’ samples, but it is not so. Druggists’ quality is specially hand-picked and naturally reaches prices somewhat in advance of the inferior kind. Expert supervision guarantees that high-grade plants will be grown under the best of conditions. The advantages that drugs grown and collected on a highly specialised plantation have over those grown and collected by peasants and natives under all sorts of conditions and forwarded fo a central depot

where the good minglesSwith the bad, to make worse, will be appreciated. Al this stage I may state that quality is affected by climatic conditions, time of collection, drying, storing, accidental admixture with other plants, and intentional adulteration. The activity of some drugs does not reach its zenith until some considerable time after gathering. Cascara is one ot these—a very unsatisfactory product is the result of using bark that has not been sufliciently matured. Drugs which it is possible to assav are bought on that result, which is certainly a fair way and economically the best. Those for which no definite tests exist have to be carefully inspected for stones, useless plants. smaU chips and fruits from which the oil has been extracted are just a few of the things a conscientious buver 111 a -y. expect to find. Ultimately the crude drugs find their way to some manufacturer, where ouce more they •ci,„ exam !'“r, d for strength and purity. They and then subjected to various processes; some may be percolated, others macerated, distilled or expressed, while sublimation mav be to change the crude to the finished article. In these enlightened da s every step is under perfect conW ed U ? the ® Uished article is suit searching tests a h hieh n ? Sh i t’harmacopoiia demands ? T* . s . taudarcl of purity; still the better class manufacturers not onlv contorm to the B.P. standard, but. where possible, standardise their preparations. and it is this specially In- b quahty merchandise that ultUnately finds itself on the pharmacist's shelf.

! Another phase of the chemists' ba i >’ ■ ness touches the sale of surgical !?• J pliauces and dressings. Great car* ; is exercised when buying these to er- | sure that only those emanating I row : reliable sources are handled. !■* high mortality at childbirth and to* ; increase in tlie use of inferior dressings at such a time has been so pro l nounced that the Chemists' Confer | ence saw fit to bring this fact to notice of the Minister of Public Health : with a view to having l:cislatw» brought down to standardise dressingWhen vou or your children are at I your one aim is to restore a nonnaf happy, healthy condition, and ® ! so doing, how many of us adopt t* correct methods? When a man's * I need attention it s natural to c«t i suit a shoemaker; when he require; bread, he patronises tha local ' when he requires meat, he calls • I the butcher. Why ? Because he i predates the fact that these ® en t . ! specialists in their work. Vet J ters of medical and surgical ct _ ! toilet articles and items of .. j hygiene—things w here purity, I iveness and confidence are so vital he so particular? People are fast realising that ? with the doctor, the chemist much to maintain public health that by virtue of his training a perience is best fitted to supply ... needs. When a doctor tells IBP to take certain things he expec_ to be of uuimi>eachable qua! [ none realises more than your ‘ j, adviser that cheap medicines arc - to sell and good medicines ar* t to cure.