Medicinal Raw Materials

MEDICINAL RAW MATERIALS, natural substances of plant, mineral, or animal origin, or products of the chemical industry used for the manufacture of medicines. According to the classification adopted in the pharmaceutical industry, medicinal raw materials are divided into the following groups of substances. 1) Raw materials of plant origin (leaves, herbs, flowers, roots, seeds, fruits, berries, etc.). 2) Products of plant processing (fatty and essential oils, resins, juices, camphor, opium, etc.). 3) Raw materials of animal origin (Spanish flies, ants, beaver castoreum, musk, spermaceti, lard, wax, lanolin, internal secretion glands and organs of various animals, etc.). 4) Fossil organic raw materials (oil and its products). 5) Fossil inorganic raw materials (table salt, magnesite, borocalcite, kaolin, etc.). 6) Metals and metalloids. 7) Inorganic acids (sulfuric, hydrochloric, nitric, phosphoric, etc.). 8) Salts (barium peroxide, calcium chloride, etc.). 9) Alkalis (burnt lime, caustic and carbonated alkalis, etc.). 10) Organic compounds (phenol, acetic acid, benzaldehyde, formalin, etc.). 11) Wine alcohol. 12) Carbohydrates. 13) Proteins. The first two categories occupy the main place among medicinal raw materials. In the 7th Pharmacopoeia, among 591 articles, there are 397 preparations of plant origin; preparations of animal origin—58, and mineral—136. Historically, medicinal raw materials were discovered and selected by ancient peoples by chance and, in any case, by an empirical method. Later, new types of medicinal raw materials were discovered as a result of systematic searches, although often based on completely fantastic premises. In the most recent period, we owe certain successes in the study of medicinal raw materials to a more complete acquaintance with natural wealth and the development of chemistry, biological sciences, and medicine itself. Medicinal raw materials appear to be the basic material part of the circulating capital of pharmaceutical production. It constitutes on average about 70–72% of the cost of pharmaceutical products. Medicinal raw materials, along with technical goods, play the most important role among the items of so-called secondary goods of international turnover. In order to reduce imports and maximize the use of domestic raw material resources, the pharmacopoeias of different countries strive to introduce as medicinal raw materials items and materials extracted within the country. This is achieved more easily the more and better the factors of the influence of medicinal raw materials on the organism are studied. The use of domestic medicinal raw materials is consistently pursued by the pharmacopoeias of the USA, Holland, and some others; Germany, which had lost its colonies, has also taken this path. The Russian pharmacopoeia had not previously pursued such an independent policy, but the Soviet 7th Pharmacopoeia has already taken the first steps on this path. In 1929, the NKZdrav went even further and excluded from the list of imported goods a number of materials less significant for public health, entered in the UPF, namely: Ac. chrysophanicum, Ac. citricum, Arecolinum, Aristolum, Bulb. Scillae, Cary-ophilli, Castoreum, Cort. Aurantii, Cort. Cas-carillae, Cort. Cinnamomi, Cort. Granati, Cort. Viburni, Cremor Tartari, Crocus, Flor. Cary-ophylli, Fruct. Aurantii, Fruct. Cardamomi, Gummi-res. Asa foetida, Gummi-res. Euphor-bium, Gummi-res. Galbanum, Hedonal, Herba Grindeliae, Homatropin, Lignum Guajaci, Lignum Quassiae, Manna calabrina, Nuces Colae, 01. Anth:s, 01. Cajeputi, 01. Ros-marini, 01. Thymi, Orthoform, Rad. Colombo, Rad. Sarsaparillae, Res. Dammar, Res. Jalapae, Rhiz. Iridis, Rhiz. Serpentariae, Rhiz. Zedoariae, Rhiz. Zingiberis, Sam. Sa-badillae, Styrax liquid., Sulfonal. The cost of raw materials required for our pharmaceutical industry in 1927/28 amounted to 14,464,000 rubles. Of this sum, 4,800,000 rubles fall to the share of imports. The cost of factory-ready products by enterprises of the pharmaceutical industry in 1927/28 amounted to 19,500,000 rubles. The quality of medicinal raw materials has special significance in the manufacture of medicinal preparations (for example, in galenic preparations) and therefore it is subjected to systematic control. A number of goods (plant raw materials, products of plant processing, such as essential oils, opium, and other inorganic compounds) have been introduced with all-Union standards, approved by the Committee for Standardization under the Council of Labor and Defense, and obligatory in trade turnover both in internal and foreign trade.