author
Daniel Hanbury
1825–1875
A Victorian botanist and pharmacologist, he helped turn the study of medicinal plants into a more careful scientific field. His work blended business experience, wide travel, and a deep curiosity about the natural origins of drugs.
1 Audiobook
Pharmacographia A history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin, met with in Great Britain and British India
by Friedrich A. (Friedrich August) Flückiger, Daniel Hanbury
About the author
Born in Clapham, London, on September 11, 1825, he came from a Quaker family with strong ties to pharmacy. He became one of the leading British figures in pharmacognosy, the study of medicines derived from natural sources, especially plants.
He worked in the family pharmaceutical business while building a serious reputation as a botanist and researcher. Hanbury traveled widely in Europe and the Middle East, collected plant material, and corresponded with specialists around the world to improve the understanding of commercial drugs and medicinal substances.
He is best remembered for helping bring order and accuracy to the study of crude drugs, and for the book Pharmacographia, prepared with Friedrich August Flückiger. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, he died on March 24, 1875, at just 49 years old.