Introduction to Pharmacopoeias

Formularises / Compendiums / Pharmacopoeias

Medications and other related substances are described in books named pharmacopeia and formularies - together these books constitute a list called the drug compendia. A pharmacopeia or formulary contains information regarding a particular drug, its source, and description, its standard, its tests, its preparation instructions, its uses, and dose, all the way down to its storage.

For the situations below, the country's government prepares the books. Pharmaceuticals are derived from two Greek words, pharmakon and poieo, meaning drugs and manufactures, respectively. In its literal sense, it refers to medical substances, crude drugs, and the formulas that can be used to make preparations from these substances. In addition to being revised from time to time, these books follow the latest information available as soon as they become established. As a result, some of the less frequently used medications and pharmaceutical adjuvants must be omitted from each new edition of the book to keep the book size to a reasonable level. Thus, certain new monographs are added to a new edition of these books whenever one is released, and some are deleted when the old edition is no longer needed.

The books were prepared with the assistance of medical professionals, teachers, and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Classification -
The following groups of drug-compendiums can be found:
(i) Official compendia
(ii) Non-official compendia

(i) Official compendia

The official compendia are compilations containing pharmaceuticals and other related substances that are legally recognized as meeting the standards of purity, quality, and strength of an origin country's government

Examples - British Pharmaceutical Codex (BPC), National Formulary (NF), Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP). Plus, there are several pharmacopeias, including the British Pharmacopoeia (BP), the USP, and the National Formulary (NF), and others.

(ii) Non-official compendia

Compendiums that aren't official drug compendia but are used as secondary sources for information about drugs and other substances are non-official drug compendiums.

Examples - United States Dispensatory, Merck Index, Extra Pharmacopoeia (Martindale), etc!

Indian pharmacopeia

History

In India, the origins of Pharmacopoeia can be traced back to 1563, and the inventor is credited to the Portuguese physician-teacher, Garcia de Orta. Despite the ideas of an indigenous Indian Pharmacopoeia being conceived in 1837 and birth in 1841 with the Bengal Pharmacopoeia and Conspectus of Drugs, no such publication has been established. Since 1901, an Indian translation of the London Pharmacopoeia in Bengali and Hindi has been available in India. In 1946, the Indian Pharmacopeial List, which was later transformed into the authentic Official Indian Pharmacopoeia, was published. However, the process of creating it began as early as 1944. Initially published in 1955, The Indian Pharmacopoeia was the first edition. The Pharmacopoeia Department of the Government of India consulted the Drugs Technical Advisory Board in 1944 to determine if any India-specific drugs were regarded as being particularly useful.

A list of the Indian pharmacopeia, 1946

The Indian Pharmacopeial List 1946 contains both the drugs included and those excluded from the British Pharmacopoeia, along with the standards that had been developed to ensure their usefulness and the tests for identity and purity. A committee headed by Col. Sir R.N. Chopra and consisting of nine other committee members prepared a list of drugs as follows: drugs listed in the British Pharmacopeia for crude drugs, chemicals, and their preparations. The British pharmacopeia does not include the following substances

Synthetics, insecticides, colorants, miscellaneous, and drugs for veterinary use are all included in drugs from plants and animals. A list of drugs compiled by the Department of Health, Government of India in 1946, is known as the Indian Pharmacopeial List.

In the history of Indian Pharmacopoeia, there have been several developments:

Years and events

Year	Events
1946	The Indian Pharmacopeial List was published by the government of India
1948	The Indian government has formed a permanent committee for compiling the Indian Pharmacopoeia. In addition to maintaining the Indian Pharmacopoeia, this committee has been given some tasks.
1955	IP was first published in its first edition.
1960	The IP 1955 supplement was published. Dr. Bina N. Ghosh, who died in 1958, was in charge of revising the Indian Pharmacopoeia and compiling a new publication of the pharmacopeia simultaneously. Dr. B. N. Ghosh retired from his post as chairman of the Indian Pharmacopoeia committee after being succeeded by Dr. B. Mukherjee, the director of Central Drug Research Institute.
1966	IP has been revised for the second time.
1975	In addition to IP 1966, a supplement was published.
1978	Under the leadership of Dr.NityaNand, CEO and Director International of the Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, the Indian Pharmacopoeia Committee has been reconstituted under the direction of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India.
1985	In the third edition of IP, two volumes were published by the Controller of Publications working on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. The contents of Volume I include Legal Notices, Preface, Acknowledgements, Introduction, General Notices, and Monographs from A-P. The volumes of Volume II contain the monographs from Q to Z, the appendices, and the appendix's contents.
1989	There was a publication of IP 1985 Addendum (I).
1991	IP 1985 was updated with Addendum (II).
1996	IP was published in its fourth edition.

The Indian Pharmacopoeia was prepared in consultation with the pharmacopeias of other countries, such as Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan, the National Formulary (USA), and the Merck Index. Also participating were representatives from pharmaceutical companies, drug control laboratories, and research institutions. A publication or an official document called the Indian Pharmacopoeia exists under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 that contains specifications for the drugs and other substances described in the publication. These standards must be met by pharmaceutical manufacturers when they manufacture drugs and related substances.

VARIOUS OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS RELATED TO THE PROFESSION OF PHARMACY IN INDIA

National formulary of India

National Formulary of India is formulated to help medical practitioners, medical students, pharmacists, and buyers in hospitals and sales departments. Originally published by the health ministry of the government of India in 1960, this book went through several digital revisions in the 1980s. A second edition appeared in 1966. The third edition came out in 1979. Information is provided regarding drug interactions, resistances, cumulative effects, drug dependence, and prescription writing, among others.

Indian pharmacopeia

In pharmacies, drugs and other substances related to drugs are prescribed according to official guidelines. The Indian Pharmacopoeia, established by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940, is an official book that describes the various medications and their uses. A pharmaceutical manufacturer must adhere to the standards outlined above when manufacturing drugs and related substances. In 1946, the Indian government published an Indian Pharmacopeial List.

Indian Pharmacopoeia first edition published in 1955.
A supplement was published for IP 1955 in 1960.
IP was published as the Second Edition in 1966.
This was the first IP Supplement published in 1975.
IP was published for the third time in 1985.
IP 1985 Addendum-I was published in 1989.
The second addendum to IP 1985 was published in 1991.
A fourth edition appeared in 1996 after the publication of the third edition in 1995.

Within each monograph, you will find the chemical structure, molecule weight, physical description, solubility, identification tests, standards, chemistry, storage, and assay method. As the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's official publisher, the Controller of Publications in Delhi produces the Indian Pharmacopoeia.

British Pharmacopoeia (BP)

The British Pharmacopoeia (BP) has been altered, amended, and republished several times throughout history by the General Council of Medical Education and Registration. Published in 1964, the first edition of BP was an important, ground-breaking achievement.

1864	This is the first time BP has been published.
1926	According to the Committee of Civil Research, the Pharmacopoeia Commission should be set up, and the commission should be responsible for the production of new editions of the Pharmacopoeia, as well as for revising and republishing BP every ten years.
1932	According to the recommendations above, BP was published for the first time in 1932.
1968	According to the 1968 Medicines Act, the Medicines Commission is responsible for preparing the BP. As part of its restructuring, the Medicines Commission gave British Pharmacopoeia Commission responsibility.
1980	BP's thirteenth edition appeared in 1980.
1988	There were 14 editions of BP published in 1988.
1993	In 1993, BP was published in its 15th edition.

There are 2100 monographs in two volumes of BP 1988:

Monographs on pharmaceuticals and medicines are included in Volume I, along with IR reference spectra.

Appendices include surgical materials and formulated preparations, blood products, immunological products, radiopharmaceutical products, and radiopharmaceutical products.

BP is responsible for drug standards in the United Kingdom and parts of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

British Pharmaceutical Codex (BPC)

The pharmaceutical society of Great Britain offered a reference book to pharmacists and dispensing pharmacists as well as medical practitioners in 1903. BPC was published for the first time in 1907.

At the request of the British Pharmacopoeia Commission, the Pharmacy Society Council agreed in 1959 that the publication of Codex would coincide with the publication of BP, so their publication dates coincided. BPC differs from BP in the following ways:

1. The codex contains many more drugs and preparations than the pharmacopeia, and some of them are included in earlier editions, as well as drugs listed in previously published editions but included in the Codex since they remain commonly used today.
2. In addition, it offers information about the effects, precautions, and treatment of poisoning associated with drugs, as well as their actions and uses.
3. Most of the preparations still prepared in the pharmacy are classified by formula, method of preparation, container, and storage condition.

United States Pharmacopeia (USP)

Published in 1820, the United States Pharmacopeial Convention is part of the United States Pharmacopeial Convention. National Formulary (NF) published by the American Pharmaceutical Association was first introduced in 1888. A single official standard publication for prescription drugs has been published each year since 1980 by the United States Pharmacopeial Convention, under the name United States Pharmacopeia and the National Formulary (USP-NF).

Extra Pharmacopoeia

The Extra Pharmacopoeia, originally published in 1883 by William Martindale, is still known today as Martindale. This is a comprehensive guide to drugs, making it one of the most widely used reference books in the world. All kinds of information about medications and drugs can be found in it. Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, under the direction of its Council, publishes this journal, which is prepared by its Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The Merck Index

A chemical encyclopedia, a drug encyclopedia, and a biological encyclopedia. In 1989, Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey, published the first edition and the eleventh edition of this book.

International Pharmacopoeia

World Health Organization publishes the International Pharmacopoeia, which is especially useful in developing countries. Published in 1951 (Volume I), the first edition was followed by a second edition in 1955. The objective was to create a uniform list of medications to eliminate confusion caused by different standards, strengths, and names used by different countries, which could result in confusion among travelers with the same prescription in different countries.

Get subject wise printable pdf documentsView Here