Pharmacology Laboratory Experiments For Pharmacy Students In Nigeria

Pharmacology lab rat

Before we delve deep into the topic proper, it is good to explain something in pharmacy. The naming of pharmacy department varies slightly among the different schools in the world. Some schools may name pharmacology department in several ways such as pharmacology, pharmacology and therapeutics or pharmacology and toxicology. This naming issue cuts across the others but more prominent in pharmacology.
Pharmacology is mainly the study of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of drugs or other chemicals since some pharmacology now deals with the toxic nature of chemicals other than drugs. This is covered in a space of three years of pharmacy school.
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Pharmacology is the main course that unites the faculty of pharmacy with other medical courses. The theory studies also by some other medical departments. In addition, the laboratory experiments in pharmacology really give a detail explanation as to how chemicals especially drugs affect the body or are affected. Pharmacology experiments are carried out in most pharmacy school for just a session consisting of two semesters.

Basics Of Experimental Pharmacology

The effects of drugs on the body vary with dose and frequency. The suitability of a dose must be ascertained with the use of experiments to back it up. The experiments involve the use of the chemical agent at various constants on laboratory animals while observing their reactions.
The toxic or therapeutic effect of a chemical compound including its mechanism of action can be studied using a living animal and the parts of the animal after sacrificing it.
Agents under study usually falls into;

• Drug in the market
• Natural extracts such as herbal extracts from plants

Experiments

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There are different type of experiments common in pharmacology for pharmacy students. They are;

• The very first experiments in pharmacology which is how to administer a drug with a dose through various route. Others include;
• The effect of a dose of a drug on different species of animals
• The effect of a dose of a drug on a particular species of different weights
• The effect of a dose of a drug on a species using the different route of administration such as oral, intravenous, intramuscular etc.
• Also, the effect of dose of a drug on a species of different age

In all, all the experiments want to find out the right dose for the animals which can be used to predict the starting dose for experiments in humans during clinical trials. This reduces the risk of using a toxic compound on humans during clinical trials. Once any of the compounds have an adverse effect on the animals, it is either discarded out the compound altered and the process starts again.

Equipment

The laboratory is divided into the main laboratory and the animal house where different species of animals are kept. The laboratory technician every day feeds these animals daily. Due to the fact that pharmacist students spend just a year here, the equipment they will be exposed to will be few. They include;

• Ultraviolet/visible spectrophotometry
• Scintillating counter
• Amplifier Rack
• Microscope
• Tissue culture
• Incubators
• Dissecting instruments
• Injections
• Mortar and pistil
• Surgical instruments
• Isolated organ bath
• Recording kymograph
• Fog muscle bath
• Cylinder with clamp
• Cannula
• Blood pressure apparatus
• Stethoscope
• Autoclave
• First aid
• Fridge

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