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Pharmacognosy (consists of two Greek words: 'pharmakon' in English, 'drug or remedy', and 'gignosco' in English, 'to acquire knowledge or simply knowledge') is the study of biogenic or naturally occurring medicines and toxins. It is the science of crude condition drugs. As a branch of Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy is the study of remedial substances, or Materia Medica. It is concerned with all therapeutic herbs, including those that produce complex combinations and are employed mostly in the form of crude herbs (comminuted herbal material) or extracts (phytotherapy), pure chemicals, and foods that have substantial health advantages solely in the sense of having preventative benefits (nutraceuticals). It includes the study of medicines in their raw form, Pharmacy, the manufacture of drugs for use by medical practitioners, and Pharmacodynamics, the physiological impact of drugs on biological entities. Pharmacognosy is a polyhistorical subject, according to the interpretation based on pharmaceutical historiography.