From Traditional Herbalists to 1st European Pharmacist

The article reviews the history of drug and drug manufacturing in Iran, which goes back to ancient time, and digs into famous doctors’ lives and their works in different epochs of pharma­cology and pharmaceutical industry. However, the focal point in the article is mainly on herbal­ists and pharmacists in Qajar and Pahlavi eras, after inauguration of Dar al-Fonoun School, and emerging modern approaches in the field. Italian doctor Facetti’s trip to Iran, as a physics, chemistry, and pharmacology professor in Dar al-Fonoun, as well as other European teachers’ admission to Iranian schools, gradually familiarized Iranian society with European drugs and modern pharmacies. French doctor Moulien was another European pharmacist, who taught medicine in Dar al-Fonoun, and founded a modern pharmacy in Lale-zar St. in Tehran after­wards. Then, arranging and announcing a charter on selling drugs in Iran, was a fruitful step in promotion of pharmacology and rule-abiding activities of the pharmacists and drug-manufactur­ers. Little by little, more pharmacies were founded in the Iranian capital, Tehran and other cities, the most famous of which belonged to Europeans. But (n Qajar and first Pahlavi king tenures; as soon as Iranian doctors became familiar with the science, Iranian pharmacists inaugurated pharmacies as well. The author completes his article with introducing newly-founded pharmacies in Iran, such as Shourin, Dr. Nezami, round the clock Sepah pharmacy and so forth, However, even after Tehran University being established, one might still run into traditional herb­alists, who were contributing to the medical science and curing patients, even in the contempo­rary period....