• Question: How did people first start making or doing drugs?

    Asked by 492rhed48 to Nicholas, Eva, David on 16 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: David Nunan

      David Nunan answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      Hi,
      Great question.

      The roots of modern medicine are in Greece and the most famous doctor from their is Hippocrates (460-377BC). He rejected magic and believed in herbal remedies (which is essentially what modern medicine and drugs are based on).

      The first mass produced ‘drug’ was penicillin (discovered from mould by Alexander Fleming) which was manufactured by an American company call Merck in the 1940’s. This company still makes drugs today.

      The first clinical trial of a drug was performed by a scientist call Austin Bradford Hill. He is a very important scientist who showed us how we should do studies in medicine properly. Now we have a very thorough process for making and testing new drugs. This is a great video to show how we do this: https://vimeo.com/68702006

    • Photo: Nicholas Pearce

      Nicholas Pearce answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      Hey,

      A lot of drugs are found in plants.
      When people were figuring out which plants they could eat, they would have ended up trying some of the ones that are drugs just by chance. They might have told other people and gave them some of the plant to try as well, to see if it had the same effect on them too.

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