I really liked Dr. Kinghorn’s talk. I absolutely love the field of pharmacy and enjoy learning about different aspects everyday. I knew a lot of pharmacy was based in plants, but 10,000 is a huge number. I liked hearing about many of our numbing agents and painkillers evolved throughout time to get what we use today. For example, how opium started as a powder and then was refined until we got morphine. I did not know the French did a lot of work with medicinal plants, especially in developing the taxonomic naming system we use today. The idea of botanical gardens as an education tool for medicinal plants was something I did know about. Dr. Abbott who when on to found Abbott Labs had a garden where he grew many of the plants he used in his pharmacy. I had the pleasure of visiting the replica of his house and grounds when I worked at AbbVie Pharmaceuticals.
I should definitely revise my biochemistry notes to account for the French discoveries and the naming system. Even nucleotide bases are heterocyclic nitrogen containing rings. It makes sense that they have names like adenine, cytosine, thymidine and guanine, now that we know that.