London Pharmacopoeia

One of the earliest references to USP s commitment to international harmonization may be found in the historical introduction to the 3rd revision [1] of the U.S. Pharmacopeia (1851) The new Dublin and London Pharmacopoeias were compared with our own, with a view of introducing uniformity wherever more important considerations did not seem to forbid the requisite modifications.. .. Note that uniformity for its own sake was not the sine qua non. 

Fig. 16.1 Frontpiece of The London Pharmacopoeia, 1618. (Reproduced with kind permission from The Himterian Libraries, The Royal College of Physicians, London.)...

Many physicians in the early eighteenth century had doubts as to whether Mithridatium was the universal panacea of all illness as claimed. The ultimate mortal attack on the remedy came from Dr William Heberden (1710-1801) (see Figure 16.3), better known clinically for his description of the Heberden s nodes in osteoarthritis. Consequently, the 1746 edition of The London Pharmacopoeia was the last in... 

The publication of the London Pharmacopoeia in December 1618 setting out detailed formulations of theriac and Mithridatium had made supervision... 

The 1746 London Pharmacopoeia was the last in which Mithridatium and Galene appear they were absent from the 1788 edition. The Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia, first published in 1699, dropped Mithridatium and Galene from the 1756 edition. Not all western European countries were so quick to expunge these formulations, for Galene with its vipers appears in the German Pharmacopoeia of 1872 and in the French Pharmacopoeia of 1884. 

Europe and China. In 1643 this was listed in a medical pamphlet as Pulvus indicus by Hermann Van der Heyden from Belgium and was later included in the London Pharmacopoeia in 1677 [14,15]. In 1749 Linnaeus named this Peruvial tree as Cinchona, which probably symbolized the legend of Countess del Chinchon. The crude powder of this plant was used for over 200 years in different parts of the world as a specific remedy for malaria. Peru was the main supplier of the bark till 1880 and did not allow export of cinchona trees. However, it was possible to smuggle the cinchona seedlings to Java, where it was successfully planted and cultivated. Eventually Java emerged as the main producer of cinchona bark. 

Cascara sagrada, the dried bark of Rhamnus purshiana, was first used in conventional American medicine in 1877, after being introduced as a laxative by Mexican and Spanish priests in California. A European counterpart (European buckthorn R frangula) was described by the Anglo-Saxons, and the berries were included in the 1650 London Pharmacopoeia (Anonymous, 1996). 

Historically, the control of pharmaceutically active products has rested with the pharmacopoeias. Pharmacopoeias in one guise or other have been published since antiquity [1]. With the beginnings of greater mobility of commerce in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, local treatises on the purity of medicinal substances began to take on national stature, fur instance the London Pharmacopoeia of 1618, the Pharmacopoeia Danica of 1772, etc. The first edition of the United Stales Pharmacopeia (USP) of 1820 predates the first British Pharmacopoeia (BP) of 1864. 

History. Quinine has been listed as one of the six most important plant products that have influenced human history [160]. Cinchona, or "Quinine Bark" is one of the most famous plants from South America and most important discoveries. Legend says that the name "cinchona" comes from the Countess of Chinchon, the wife of a viceroy of Peru, who was cured in 1638 of a malarial type of fever by using the bark of the Cinchona tree. The legend starts with a misspelled name, continues with an extract named mistakenly by Linnaeus in 1742 as "quinquina", and maintains the reputed traditional use of plant extract for a disease probably introduced to that continent by Europeans and their African slaves [see 161, 162, 6]. Quinine bark was used by the Jesuits very early in its history, first advertized for sale in England in 1658 and was made official in the London Pharmacopoeia in 1677. 

This preparation is stronger in spirit, and about one-half stronger in ammonia, than the Spiritus Ammonise Aromaticus of the London Pharmacopoeia. ... 

This latter was by no means a reprint of the earlier one and was substantially enlarged and changed. The publication of the London Pharmacopoeia in December 1618, setting out detailed formulations of theriac and mithridatium, had made supervision easier and the manufacture was clearly no longer entrusted to a single apothecary. 

Earles, M. P. 1985. The London Pharmacopoeia Perfected, The Durham Thomas Harriot Seminar—Occasional Papers No. 3. London The Chameleon Press. 

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