Preface
The pharmacy profession and the role of pharmacists in the modern
healthcare systems have evolved quite rapidly over the last couple of
decades. The services that pharmacists provide are expanding with the
introduction of supplementary prescribing, provision of health checks,
patient counselling and many others. The main ethos of pharmacy profession is now as much about keeping people healthy as treating them when
they are not well. The modern pharmacy profession is shifting away from a
product focus and towards a patient focus. To cope with these changes, and
to meet the demand of the modern pharmacy profession, the pharmacy
curriculum, especially in the developed world, has evolved significantly. In
the western countries, almost all registered pharmacists are employed by the
community and hospital pharmacies. As a consequence, the practice, law,
management, care, prescribing science and clinical aspects of pharmacy
have become the main components of pharmacy curriculum. In order to
incorporate all these changes, naturally, the fundamental science components, e.g. chemistry, statistics, pharmaceutical biology, microbiology,
pharmacognosy and a few other topics, have been reduced remarkably.
The impact of these recent changes is more innocuous in the area of
pharmaceutical chemistry.
As all drugs are chemicals, and pharmacy is mainly about the study of
various aspects of drugs, including manufacture, storage, actions and
toxicities, metabolisms and managements, chemistry still plays a vital role
in pharmacy education. However, the extent at which chemistry used to be
taught a couple of decades ago has certainly changed significantly. It has
been recognized that while pharmacy students need a solid foundation in
chemistry knowledge the extent cannot be the same as chemistry students
may need.
There are several books on general, organic and natural product chemistry
available today, but all of them are written in such a manner that the level is
only suitable for undergraduate Chemistry students, not for Pharmacy
undergraduates. Moreover, in most modern pharmacy curricula, general,
organic and natural product chemistry is taught at the first and second year
undergraduate levels only. There are also a limited number of Pharmaceutical Chemistry books available to the students, but none of them can meet
the demand of the recent changes in pharmacy courses in the developed
The pharmacy profession and the role of pharmacists in the modern
healthcare systems have evolved quite rapidly over the last couple of
decades. The services that pharmacists provide are expanding with the
introduction of supplementary prescribing, provision of health checks,
patient counselling and many others. The main ethos of pharmacy profession is now as much about keeping people healthy as treating them when
they are not well. The modern pharmacy profession is shifting away from a
product focus and towards a patient focus. To cope with these changes, and
to meet the demand of the modern pharmacy profession, the pharmacy
curriculum, especially in the developed world, has evolved significantly. In
the western countries, almost all registered pharmacists are employed by the
community and hospital pharmacies. As a consequence, the practice, law,
management, care, prescribing science and clinical aspects of pharmacy
have become the main components of pharmacy curriculum. In order to
incorporate all these changes, naturally, the fundamental science components, e.g. chemistry, statistics, pharmaceutical biology, microbiology,
pharmacognosy and a few other topics, have been reduced remarkably.
The impact of these recent changes is more innocuous in the area of
pharmaceutical chemistry.
As all drugs are chemicals, and pharmacy is mainly about the study of
various aspects of drugs, including manufacture, storage, actions and
toxicities, metabolisms and managements, chemistry still plays a vital role
in pharmacy education. However, the extent at which chemistry used to be
taught a couple of decades ago has certainly changed significantly. It has
been recognized that while pharmacy students need a solid foundation in
chemistry knowledge the extent cannot be the same as chemistry students
may need.
There are several books on general, organic and natural product chemistry
available today, but all of them are written in such a manner that the level is
only suitable for undergraduate Chemistry students, not for Pharmacy
undergraduates. Moreover, in most modern pharmacy curricula, general,
organic and natural product chemistry is taught at the first and second year
undergraduate levels only. There are also a limited number of Pharmaceutical Chemistry books available to the students, but none of them can meet
the demand of the recent changes in pharmacy courses in the developed