Let’s take a moment to talk about the OG subject of pharmacy — Pharmacognosy.
The study of drugs derived from plants, animals, and natural sources. Once the soul of pharmacy, now often considered just another theory subject with powdered drugs and tedious microscope slides.
But here’s the question — Has pharmacognosy become outdated, or are we underestimating its power in today’s pharma landscape?
A Field Rich in Legacy and Potential
Pharmacognosy has gifted us life-saving drugs:
Paclitaxel – From the bark of the yew tree (used in ovarian/breast cancer)
Morphine – From poppy latex (a gold-standard in pain management)
Artemisinin – From Artemisia plant (frontline antimalarial)
Yet in our classes, it rarely moves beyond drawing stomata, drying herbs and learning Latin names.
Isn’t it time we shift the focus from “Draw and label the parts of clove” to “How can plant bioactives shape future cancer therapies?”
Why the Reboot is needed in 2025:
Pharma is going back to nature. Plant-based drugs, nutraceuticals, and herbal supplements are booming.
Consumers demand clean-label products. There’s a trust revival in traditional knowledge but backed by science.
AI meets Ayurveda: Modern tech can now decode ancient knowledge systems. Pharmacognosy could be a perfect bridge.
Climate change and drug resistance call for newer, greener, sustainable APIs.
If we modernize how it’s taught, Pharmacognosy could become:
A research-rich subject for drug discovery.
A stepping stone into phytochemistry, green pharmacology, and nutraceutical formulation.
A startup for clean-label, evidence-backed botanical products.
So should it be linked with AI-based compound screening, clinical trial design, or pharma marketing? Drop your thoughts below
The irony is, while we label it as ‘old-school’, the pharma world is racing back to nature for clean, sustainable, and effective compounds.
With AI and molecular docking, we can now screen hundreds of plant compounds in silico — something that could’ve taken years through traditional methods. Why not merge this with our ancient knowledge systems and explore leads beyond synthetic libraries?
Pharmacognosy being taught through case studies of plant-derived blockbusters, startup models, and real-time data on herbal drug sales. Wouldn’t that make it more career-relevant?
What if every pharmacognosy lab worked on finding one new bioactive lead from indigenous plants each semester? Could India become a global leader in botanical drug discovery?
I feel Pharmacognosy is still very powerful, but we often ignore its true potential. It gave us some of the best medicines, yet in class we mostly focus on dry theory. If we connect it with research, AI, and real-world applications, it can become a game-changer. Nature has answers we just need to explore it with a modern approach.
As of now, natural products contribute to over 40% of FDA-approved drugs with many already in use in frontline therapies and most of them are plant-based. In recent years, due to advancement in many robust and sensitive techniques like metabolomics (most importantly), transcriptomics and genome mining, many bioactive phytometabolites have been getting identified quickly. AI-based potential drug screening will definitely help here in implementing faster and smoother identification. Through the combination of aforementioned techniques, mechanism of action of these compounds can also be easily discovered and the entire process of isolation, quantification, and characterization of the respective phytochemicals can be standardized quickly that generally takes a lot of time. Besides, now many plant derived compounds are in preclinical and clinical trials that can be majorly helpful for all lifestyle diseases. Moreover, currently the research studies are also increasing in the field of micropropagation and various plant tissue culture practices (inclusive of callus culture) to even extract phytometabolites from vulnerable and almost endangered plants.
Absolutely true! Pharmacognosy is not a forgotten theory, it’s an untapped powerhouse of modern drug discovery. Nature still holds answers to today’s toughest diseases. If we combine ancient wisdom with modern science and AI, this subject could lead the next wave of innovative, plant-based drug discovery. It’s time we stop seeing it as just a “theory subject” and start exploring its real-world potential.
Pharmacognosy is not outdated subject. Its true potential is underestimated around 40% of the natural product of FDA approved drugs with are already in use .
Absolutely agree! Advances like metabolomics and genome mining are reshaping natural product research. It’s time education catches up with the science.
Pharmacognosy shouldn’t only remain a foundational subject — it should evolve and integrate with modern tools like AI-based compound screening, clinical trial design, and pharma marketing.
A Field Rich in Legacy and Potential
Why the Reboot is needed in 2025:
Pharmacognosy isn’t outdated — it’s underutilized.
With AI and molecular docking, we can now screen hundreds of plant compounds in silico — something that could’ve taken years through traditional methods. Why not merge this with our ancient knowledge systems and explore leads beyond synthetic libraries?
What if every pharmacognosy lab worked on finding one new bioactive lead from indigenous plants each semester? Could India become a global leader in botanical drug discovery?