pharmacy

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pharmacy derives its name from the Greek root pharmakon, a drug. Pharmacy is concerned with the manufacture, formulation, quality control, and dispensing of medicaments used to treat disease. The majority of modern medicaments consist of tablets, capsules, and injections, all produced under stringent conditions. Usually only a tiny part of the product is active drug, the rest being the ‘excipient’ which provides an appropriate vehicle for delivery to the patient. Many old-fashioned forms of medication — such as mixtures, tinctures, decoctions, elixirs, emulsions, and syrups — have now virtually disappeared, reducing the requirement for extemporaneous manufacture of products by dispensing pharmacists.

Alan W. Cuthbert


See drugs.

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