What is Crude Drugs? Crude drugs are natural products which are not pure compound.

A plant or animal drug contains all principles characteristic of the drug. The dried leaves bark, or rhizome of a plant contain therapeutically active principles. Also known as botanical; plant extract. The crude substances derived from plants or animals by more or less elaborate process of extraction, are complex bodies consisting of several components occurring intimately mixed together in fairly definite proportions. Types: There may be organized drugs like powders of natural occurrence (Lycopodium, pollen); Fossil organisms , Shell and Minerals (exp. Diatomite, chalk, Kaolin, Talc, etc), hairs and fibers (cotton wool), wood, wool, silk) Woods (sandal, quassia); Barks and galls (cinnamon,); leaves (Jaborandi, Senna); flowers (saffron, Marigold); Seeds (Mustard, Almond); Fruits (Fennel, Poppy); Entire organism (yeast, Ergot); Rhizome and root (Arnica, ginger) or may be unorganized drugs like Gums and saccharine substances (acacia,Tragacanth); Fixed oils, fats, waxes; Glands and Glandular secretion (thyroid gland, musk); Calcium oxalate or may be Powdered drugs like nut shells and fruit stones, capsicums, etc A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. In pharmacology, a drug is "a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being. Drugs may be prescribed for a limited duration, or on a regular basis for chronic disorders. Recreational drugs are chemical substances that affect the central nervous system, such as opoids or hallucinogens. They may be used for perceived beneficial effects on perception, consciousness, personality, and behavior. Some drugs can cause addiction and habituation.

For the study of the drug we should know the four distinct departments of study: Pharmaceutical Chemistry: This subject includes the theory and fundamentals of scientific chemistry, but emphasis is focused upon chemical substances of pharmaceutical importance. Pharmacy or Pharmaceutics: Which is concerned with the modes of treatment of chemicals and the crude drugs in the preparation of galenicals and medicines in forms suitable for administration. Pharmacology or Pharmacodynamics: To study the responses of organisms when subjected to treatment by drugs. Pharmacognosy: which is the scientific study of the structural, physical, chemical and sensory characters of crude drugs of animals, vegetable and mineral origin and includes also their history, cultivation and collection and other particulars relating to the treatment they receive during their passage from the producer to the distributors or pharmacists.So pharmacognosy is the objective study of the crude drugs of animal, vegetables and mineral origin, treated scientifically.

Sources of drugs: They are from Plants, Animals, & of minerals origin. Other categories of substances used by the medical practitioners and by the Pharmacists are included fibers, and fabrics used for making surgical dressing; materials used for strainers for filtration or for clarifying cloudy liquids, such as diatomite and asbestos, also substances like agar, gelatin and wax which although used to a limited extent as remedial agents are more largely employed as bases or vehicles for the manufacture of ointments, suppositories, lozenges or other special types of medicaments or of oil.

What is Hallucinogenic drug? It is a psychoactive drug that induces hallucinations or altered sensory experiences hallucinogen, psychedelic drug. Hallucination are oldest known drugs that has been used for the ability to alter the human perception and mood. For centuries, many of the naturally occurring plants and fungi have been used for medical, social, and religious practices. In recent years many synthetic hallucinogens are produced which are stronger in their action.

Physical Effects: The biochemical, pharmacological and physiological bases for hallucinogenic activity are not well understood. Even the name for this class of drugs is not ideal, because hallucinogens do not always produce hallucinations. However, taken in non-toxic dosages, these substances produce changes in perception, thought and mood. Physiological effects include elevated heart rate, increased blood pressure and dilated pupils. Sensory effects include perceptual distortions that vary with dose, setting and mood. Psychic effects include disorders of thought associated with time and space.

What Are Alkaloids?

Alkaloids are derived from plants sources, they are basic in nature, they contain one or more nitrogen atoms (usually in a heterocyclic ring) and they usually have a marked physiological action. Alkaloids are produced by a large variety of organisms, including bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals and are part of the group of natural products (also called secondary metabolites). Many alkaloids can be purified from crude extracts by acid-base extraction. Many alkaloids are toxic to other organisms. They often have pharmacological effects and are used as medications, as recreational drugs, or in entheogenic rituals. Examples are the local anesthetic and stimulant cocaine, the stimulant caffeine, nicotine, the analgesic morphine, or the antimalarial drug quinine.

Although alkaloids act on a diversity of metabolic systems in humans and other animals, they almost uniformly invoke a bitter taste. Function of Alkaloids: The purpose of existence of alkaloids in plants i.e. their function in plants is uncertain, There are various views by different authorities, such as, They are of no importance and may be regarded as by-product of plant metabolism, They may act as reservoir for protein synthesis.

They may act as protective substances against the animals or insect attacks. Like hormones, they may function as plant stimulants or regulators in activities like growth, metabolism and reproduction. Or they may function as detoxicating agents by condensing and cycling the compounds whose accumulation might otherwise cause damage to the plants.

Properties of Alkaloids Alkaloids are colorless, crystalline, non-volatile, solids, and a few such as Coniine nicotine are liquids and a few even colored, i,e berberin is yellow. The free bases alkaloids themselves are insoluble in water but soluble in most of the organic solvents. Most of the alkaloids are laevorotory (optically active), although a few are dextrorotory (eg coniine) , while a few are even optically inactive, eg papaverine. Generally , the alkaloids are bitter in taste and have pronounced physiological activity.

Although many of the alkaloids posses curative properties and are of great value in medicine, they are powerful poisons. (It was a well known fact that Socrates was condemned to death by giving a cup of hemlock, Comium maculatum). Chemically, alkaloids are generally basic in nature and precipitated out by the common alkaloid reagents.

Application of Alkaloid As medicine

Plants has a long history of medical use of alkaloid. Scientists first synthesized alkaloids in the 19th century and immediately found its application in clinical practice. Many alkaloids are still used in medicine, usually in the form of salts. The following are the uses of alkaloid

Many synthetic and semisynthetic drugs are structural modifications of the alkaloids, which were designed to enhance or change the primary effect of the drug and reduce unwanted side effects. For example, naloxone, an opioid receptor antagonist, is a derivative of thebaine which is present in opium.

Thebaine Naloxone In agriculture: Prior to the development of a wide range of relatively low-toxic synthetic pesticides, some alkaloids, such as salts of nicotine and anabasine, were used as insecticides. Their use was limited by their high toxicity to humans.

Use as psychoactive drugs

Preparations of plants containing alkaloids and their extracts, and later pure alkaloids have long been used as psychoactive substances. Cocaine and cathinone are stimulants of the central nervous system. Mescaline and many of indole alkaloids (such as psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine and ibogaine) have hallucinogenic effect. Morphine and codeine are strong narcotic pain killers.

There are alkaloids that do not have strong psychoactive effect themselves, but are precursors for semi-synthetic psychoactive drugs. For example, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are used to produce methacathinone (ephedrine) and methamphetamine.