Until the end of the 18th century, medical science (materia medica) encompassed all knowledge relating to the medicines used at the time, which were derived from plants, animals or mineral products. From the early 19th century onwards, pharmacognosy specialised in the qualitative description of raw materials, defining their identity, origin, method of production and chemical composition, while pharmacodynamics (today known as pharmacology) dealt with the aspect of their activity and effects on the human body. The first use of the term pharmacognosy comes from a textbook by J.A. Schmidt’s Lehrbuch der Materia Medica (Vienna 1811), while   Theodor Martius, from the University of Erlangen, was the first to introduce lectures on this subject in the academic year 1824/25. 

The teaching of pharmacy at the Jagiellonian University began in 1783, with the establishment of the Department of Pharmacy and Materia Medica and the nomination of the Cracow pharmacist and doctor of medicine Jan Szaster (1746-1793) as its head. Initially, Szaster would teach the students in his own pharmacy, and it was not until 1787-1791 that a Pharmacy Room was established in the building of the Physical College (today’s Kollataj College at 6 Św. Anny Street). It served for the practical teaching of the subject and was equipped with a pharmacy laboratory. This was supplemented by a small collection of simple, compounded products and preparations, which were used in teaching materia medica to pharmacy and medical students. 

A new phase in the teaching of pharmacy coincided with the years 1825-1857, when Florian Sawiczewski (1797-1876), Master of Pharmacy and Doctor of Medicine and Surgery, took over as Professor of Pharmacy. His extensive education and experience of foreign studies enabled him to incorporate pharmacognosy into his pharmacy lectures from as early as 1826. From 1833 to 1851, Professor Sawiczewski also chaired the Department of Chemistry and established the Chemistry Cabinet. 

To meet the needs of the new science, Florian Sawiczewski began to reorganise the inadequate equipment and teaching collections of the department, forming a proper Pharmacognostic Cabinet. During the first 10 years, he mainly purchased new raw materials for the collection. From 1835, when the Department received two large rooms on the first floor of the Physical College, more furniture and display cabinets were added to the facilities to store and display the constantly growing collection. Between 1840 and 1846, 1,035 glass jars in three sizes were purchased from Czech glassworks, as well as 405 cardboard boxes covered with safiane paper. These containers were labelled with the UJ coat of arms. Also on display in the Cabinet were wax models of fruits and mushrooms and stuffed animals used in medicine, such as the muskrat, the Indian civet and the sandfish skink. At the time of Professor Florian Sawiczewski’s retirement in 1857, the collection of ‘plant and animal creatures in model specimens’ comprised 1,626 raw materials (raw and partially processed products). 

After Prof Sawiczewski’s retirement, the teaching of pharmacy was suspended and the department closed down. However, the supervision of the Pharmacognostic Cabinet and lectures on pharmacognosy for students of pharmacy and medicine were taken over by Professor Fryderyk Skobel (1806-1876), henceforth head of the Department of Pathology, Therapeutics, Pharmacology and Pharmacognosy. 

Following the separation of the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacognosy, Professor Józef Łazarski (1854-1924) became its head in 1882. Under his supervision, in the academic year 1895/96, the Department, together with other chairs of the Faculty of Medicine, was moved to the new premises of the Collegium Medicum at 16 Grzegórzecka St. The division of the hitherto combined unit took place in the academic year 1928/1929, and the independent Department of Pharmacognosy was entrusted to Dr Witold Rawita-Witanowski (1899-1944). In 1938, the Department of Pharmacognosy was transferred to the Faculty of Philosophy and incorporated into the then Division of Pharmacy, and the collections of the Cabinet were moved to 10 Skałeczna Street. 

Despite its turbulent history, the collection of the Pharmacognostic Cabinet became the part of an independent Department of Pharmacognosy. The collection, which was systematically expanded by successive heads of the Department of Pharmacognosy, has not lost its didactic function to the present day. After several relocations within Kraków, the Department of Pharmacognosy is now accommodated at the Faculty of Pharmacy JU MC, at 9 Medyczna Street. The official opening of the exposition of the Pharmacognosy Cabinet, presenting the collection founded by Professor Florian Sawiczewski, took place with the participation of the authorities of the Pharmaceutical Faculty and invited guests on 24 June 2024.