Department of Pharmacognosy

Chairman: Prof. Dr. Iqbal Azhar

The Faculty of Pharmacy was established in 1973 and comprised of four departments. Department of Pharmacognosy has been working since then as an integral part of the faculty. Today it has grown into a well-established department that is the backbone of pharmacy education in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Pharmacognosy is the portmanteau of two Greek words, pharmakon meaning drug, and gnosis meaning knowledge. It is the study of natural bioactive substances obtained from terrestrial and marine plants, animals, microbes and minerals for their physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties, their taxonomy and ethno-biology.
It is one of the major areas of Pharmaceutical sciences; today a highly interdisciplinary science which include parts of botany, organic chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology, zoology, anthropology, geography, ethno medicine, biotechnology etc.
This discipline covers wide range of topics such as sources of natural products, their chemical composition, medicinal value, distribution, ethno-pharmacological profile, biosynthetic pathways, isolation, evaluation, quality control, standardization, nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals.
Pharmacognosy research topics encompasses identification of plant drugs, phytochemistry, extraction methods, separation, purification, identification and structure elucidation of natural products, phytotherapy, biologics, allergens, nutraceuticals, cosmeceutical and toxic manifestation of natural products. It also provides for the discovery of lead compounds for drug development, new methods of analysis for drugs, toxins and herbal preparations.
In Pakistan there has always been an immense interest in medicinal plants and also in traditional system of medicine–Unani and Homeopathic systems. The active chemical constituents of these plants are also used in the modern system of medicine–Allopathy. Traditionally, most of the population depends on natural sources of medicine. A vast majority does not have excess to modern medicine hence there is a huge scope to develop cheap drugs from locally available recourses to meet the needs of the country.
The Department offers to assists the undergraduates to earn a Pharm. D. degree and guide the young scientific investigators to earn either M.Phil. / Ph. D. degree in the field of Pharmacognosy. We further project that our undergraduates will be equipped to bring a better promise of tomorrow in pharmaceutical industry (manufacturing/quality control, drug development), hospital and clinical pharmacy, regulatory bodies, academics, research and development.
To fulfill the national requirement, Department of Pharmacognosy strives to provide professionals who could work in any Pharmaceutical industry or can be instrumental in modernizing herbal drug industry on scientific basis. Our graduates have an array of opportunities to work.

A quote from the Holy Quran:

 “Then eat from all the fruits and follow the ways of your Lord laid down [for you]. There emerges from their bellies a drink (honey), varying in colors, in which there is healing for people. Indeed in that is a sign for a people who give thought”.
(Sūrat l-naḥl (The Bees): verse (69)

The Prophet Muhammad (Salallaahu alayhi wasallaam) said:
“Make use of the two cures: honey and the Qur’an”.
(Ibn Majah & others)

Hazrat Abu Hurairah States:

 “I have heard from Rasool Allah (PBUH) that there is cure for every disease in black seeds except death and black seeds are Shooneez”.

Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine stated the following some 2,500 years ago:
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”.