History of pharmacy

 Like all healthcare professions, the origins of pharmacy can be traced back thousands of years. In fact, the earliest pharmaceutical text ever discovered dates to the Mesopotamians in 2100 B.C. 1

From the time our early ancestors realized there were medicinal properties contained within the natural world, there have been people whose role in society was to transform leaves, seeds, bark, insects, and other flora and fauna into medicine. And although very little crushing of tree bark is done in the profession today, you can draw a straight line between these early practitioners and our modern pharmacists.

However, chronicling the history of pharmacy back to multiple ancient civilizations is a bit ambitious, so we’ll start our history a few hundred years prior to our present day.2

India inherited a disorganised pharmacy system from the British authorities when it gained independence in 1947, and there were no legislative constraints on the practise of pharmacy. The 'Pharmacy Act' was enacted in 1948 as the country's first minimum education requirement for pharmacy profession. The Act's provisions are carried out by the 'Pharmacy Council of India(PCI)'. Individual states are required by the Act to create state pharmacy councils that are in charge of overseeing and registering pharmacists in their jurisdictions.