History of Pharmacology Timeline

Present-day Chinese pharmacy emerged through pharmaceutical exchanges between China and the wider world over the past centuries.

Image source: Traditional Chinese medicine

Ranked positions in the pre-Heian Imperial court were established, creating an organizational structure that remained largely intact until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

Image source: Heian period

By the ninth century, pharmacies had become state-regulated, marking an important step toward formal oversight of pharmaceutical practice.

Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, also known as Abulcasis, pioneered the preparation of medicines by sublimation and distillation during his lifetime from 936 to 1013.

Image source: Al-Zahrawi

A tenth-century pharmacological work titled The Foundations of the True Properties of Remedies described substances including arsenious oxide and demonstrated familiarity with silicic acid.

Image source: Abu Bakr al-Razi

Al-Biruni wrote Kitab al-Saydalah, or The Book of Drugs, a major Islamic work on pharmacology describing drug properties and the role, functions, and duties of pharmacists.

Image source: Al-Biruni

The works of al-Maridini of Baghdad and Cairo and Ibn al-Wafid were translated and printed in Latin more than fifty times, including versions known as De Medicinis universalibus et particularibus and Medicamentis Simplicibus.

Image source: Ibn al-Wafid

At the beginning of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Middle Eastern pharmaceutical practitioners increasingly redirected their interests from medicinal theories toward practical and therapeutic applications.

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Middle Eastern pharmacopoeias began to resemble cookbooks more than medical encyclopedias, a development associated with cultural exchange among China, Iran, and the Mongol Empire.

After 1260, pharmaceutical writing increasingly emphasized archives of practical pharmacy knowledge for the public rather than discussions of pharmacy’s surrounding culture and values.

In 1260, Egyptian Jewish physician and pharmacist Abu ‘I-Munā al-Kuhín al-‘Attār published Minhaj al-dukkan, a 25-chapter manual covering drug names, ingredients, quantities, preparation methods, and dosages.

Image source: Medicine in the medieval Islamic world

The history of pharmacy as a modern and independent science dates to the first third of the nineteenth century.

Chloroform was first used as an anesthetic in 1847, becoming an important nineteenth-century development in pharmacology and surgical practice.

The United States formed the American Pharmaceutical Association in 1852 to advance pharmacists’ roles in patient care, support career development, disseminate information, and raise awareness of pharmacists’ contributions.

Image source: American Pharmacists Association

Chloral hydrate was introduced in 1869 as a sleeping aid and sedative.

Image source: Chloral hydrate

Methylene blue was synthesized from aniline in 1876 and was originally used as a dye. Its derivatives later contributed to the development and medical use of phenothiazines.

Image source: Methylene blue

Phenothiazines were used as antimalarials, antiseptics, and antihelminthics up to 1940, before their later significance in psychopharmacology.

Image source: Phenothiazine

Throughout the twentieth century, the government amended its ordinances governing pharmaceutical education and licensing.

Following Dr. Trebing’s death, the Medical Office continued to be operated by German owners until it was demolished in 1970.

The Medical Ordinance of 1904 and Poisons Ordinance of 1905 established standards governing qualified chemists and druggists handling medicinal and poisonous substances.

In 1921, Frederick Banting and Charles Best found that the hormone insulin lowered the blood sugar of dogs, a discovery that transformed diabetes treatment.

Image source: Insulin

In 1928, Alexander Fleming developed the first antibiotic, penicillin, after discovering a fungus capable of killing bacteria.

Image source: Penicillin

Earlier legal efforts to regulate pharmaceutical education, licensing, and the handling of substances led to Ordinance No. 30 of 1933.

King Edward VII College of Medicine admitted its first pharmacy students in 1935, marking an institutional development in pharmaceutical education.

Image source: King Edward VII College of Medicine

The psychopharmacological revolution began in 1950 when chlorpromazine was discovered, introducing a major new class of treatments for psychiatric disorders.

Image source: Chlorpromazine