A brief history of pharmacology Originating in the 19th century, the discipline makes drug development possible. The medicinal chemist may create the candidate compound, but the pharmacologist is the one who tests it for physiologic activity. This article briefly presents the historical development of pharmacology and some of the basic methods used. In actual use, however, its meaning is limited to the study of the actions of drugs.
Pharmacology studies the effects of drugs and how they exert their effects.
There is a distinction between what a drug does and how it acts. Thus, amoxicillin cures a strep throat, and cimetidine promotes the healing of duodenal ulcers. Amoxicillin inhibits the synthesis of cell wall mucopeptide by the bacteria that cause the infection, and cimetidine inhibits gastric acid secretion by its antagonist action on histamine H2 receptors. The main tasks of pharmacologists in the search for and development of new medicines are screening for desired activity, determining mode of action, and quantifying drug activity when chemical methods are not available. Historical development Synthetic organic chemistry was born in 1828, when Friedrich Wohler synthesized urea from inorganic substances and thus demolished the vital force theory.