El nacimiento de la especialidad farmacéutica / Birth of the pharmaceutical specialty

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Historical Review of Glasses Used for Parenteral Packaging.

Glass has long been used for packaging precious liquids, in particular pharmaceuticals. Its unique combination of hermeticity, transparency, strength, and chemical durability make it the optimal material for such an important role. Today's life-saving drugs are stored in borosilicate glasses, which evolved from applications in microscope optics and thermometers. As the glass compositions improved, so did the methods used to shape them and the tests used to characterize them. While all of these advances improved the quality of the glass container and its ability to protect the contents, problems still exist such as delamination, cracks, and glass particulates. In addition to these issues, we review new developments in glass composition development, performance, and testing in the 21st century.

"Terumeru," A Patent Medicine of the Late Edo Era-The Packaging, Efficacy Statement, and Dosage Form.

"Terumeru" was a patent medicine that an apothecary in Osaka sold as an expectorant and medicine for internal diseases towards the end of the Edo era. Due to its manufacturer, Gengendo, closing its expectorant business in the early Meiji era, further details are unknown. The author investigated Terumeru products dating back approximately 200 years. The objective of this study is to clarify what kind of patent medicine Terumeru was, and furthermore, compare it to other medicines with names spelled using katakana that were distributed around the same time as a topic of discussion. The characteristics of Terumeru were as follows : the dosage form was three times as much as that prescribed for similar drugs ; and although it was said to be of Dutch origin, the name of a Chinese clinician, Zhu Zhenheng, was cited on its efficacy statement and advertising. These findings revealed that there were problems with its formulation and inconsistency in its brand image. These reasons led to the conclusion that Terumeru was considered a katakana-named patent medicine during the pioneering days of pharmacology Japan.

Corcho y taponamiento farmacéutico. La situación en 1930 / Cork and pharmacy stoppers. The situation in 1930

Este artículo tiene como objetivo contribuir al estudio histórico de los mercados clientelares en el sector corchero. Es una apuesta por el largo plazo y por la perspectiva de la historia sectorial como vía para esclarecer aspectos cruciales de la historia económica, relacionados con el negocio farmacéutico, poco conocidos a nivel agregado. Así, a partir de fuentes secundarias, se analiza el caso de los tapones para la industria farmacéutica, grupo que compró grandes cantidades de tapones de corcho durante décadas, hasta entrado el siglo XX. El artículo revela que, entre otras cuestiones, la conciencia de la heterogeneidad de la materia prima, o los problemas organolépticos, siempre preocuparon a los compradores de corcho, provocando en el caso de la farmacia, su abandono definitivo

The main aim of this article is to contribute to the historical study of the clients markets in the cork sector. The study emphasizes the value of a long-term sector history perspective to clarify key aspects of economic history, related to the pharmacy business, little known at added level. Thus, from secondary sources, the article analyzes the case of the cork stoppers bought by the pharmacy industry, a group buying big quantities of stoppers for decades. The paper reveals that, among other issues, the conscience of the heterogeneity of the cork as raw material, or the organoleptic problems, did always worry the cork buyers, provoking in the pharmacy sector, their final exit

["Holtos," a Patented Medicine of the Late Edo Era--Wrapping Style, Statement of Medicine Efficacy, and Tablet Form].

Holtos is a medicine that was patented by Kan-sei-do, a pharmacy in Osaka, and sold as a Western medicine from the late Edo era to the Meiji era. It is similar to the patented medicine Uluus, which sold well using the katakana brand name. This article introduces HOLTOS products marketed beginning in the late Edo era and makes a comparative study with Uluus products. The features of Holtos include more indications of what the drug can be used to treat in order to emphasize its versatility. There was also a slight increase in size of the tablet sold at the same price as Uluus, and other improvements such as embossing the name "Holtos" on the surface of the tablet. These reasons lead to the conclusion that Holtos was a patented medicine that imitated Uluus. Furthermore, it has been confirmed that strategic measures were taken by Holtos to outlast competition in the market.

[History of pharmaceutical packaging in modern Japan. II--Package size of pharmaceuticals].

When planning pharmaceutical packaging, the package size for the product is important for determining the basic package concept. Initially, the sales unit for herbal medicines was the weight; however in 1868, around the early part of the Meiji era, Japanese and Western units were being used and the sales unit was confusing. Since the Edo era, the packing size for OTC medicines was adopted using weight, numbers, dosage or treatment period. These were devised in various ways in consideration of convenience for the consumer, but the concept was not simple. In 1887, from the time that the first edition of the Japanese Pharmacopoeia came out, use of the metric system began to spread in Japan. Its use spread gradually for use in the package size of pharmaceutical products. At the time, the number of pharmaceutical units (i.e., tablets), became the sales unit, which is easy to understand by the purchaser.

[From ancient pot collections to the modern medicines. Menier's pot collection-19th century]. / L'arsenal thérapeutique du XIXe siècle a travers le droguier Menier.

At the beginning of the 19th century in 1816, Jean Antoine Brutus Menier founded the "Maison Centrale de Droguerie Menier". It supplied most of the pharmacies in France with drugs of animal, plant and mineral origin for the pharmaceutical preparations recommended at that time. The company provided training for many chemists and pharmacists, and as such, had a collection of pots containing over seven hundred drugs that is currently held at the head office of the Council of the College of Pharmacists in Paris. After having described the pot collection, set it against the 19th century background which experienced a real revolution within this profession, and after retracing its history, a study was then carried out in order to compare the former uses with the modern uses for each of the drugs. Thanks to this detailed, comparative analysis it is now possible to evaluate the relevance of the therapeutic range of drugs in the first half of the 19th century, before the significant rise in chemistry. The Germinal Law changed the pharmacist's profession, and with the birth of chemistry, the art of the pharmacy was revolutionised. However, the drugs, and particularly those of plant origin, have managed to keep a dominant position in today's pharmaceutical domain and in the French or European Pharmacopoeia.

The composition of some Roman medicines: evidence for Pliny's Punic wax?

Residues from medicine containers in the collections of the British Museum have been investigated as part of a wider programme of scientific work on Roman surgical instruments. The cylindrical bronze containers are often described as instrument cases, but some contain materia medica, ranging from extensive extant remains of ancient preparations to possible minor deposits on the interior surfaces of the containers. Samples from seven residues have been analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to identify lipid, resin and carbohydrate components and by X-ray fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy to characterise inorganic materials. The results have provided evidence for ointments and powders or pills consistent with a medical purpose. The ingredients identified include beeswax, fat, conifer resin and gum-derived sugars, plus elemental carbon and lead and zinc salts. Particularly significant were the varied compositions of residues from four sections of a multi-compartment container. In one of these compartments, the beeswax seems to have been prepared as the 'Punic wax' described by Pliny. Experimental preparation of Punic wax following Pliny's method was undertaken in the laboratory and the product analysed to compare with the ointment residues. This paper discusses the GC-MS results of both the experimental material and the archaeological residues and their significance for the interpretation of the past intended applications of the medicines and the use of the containers.