Pharmacology is the study of the interactions of drugs in living organisms and their effects on the functions of the organism. In pharmacology, if materials have medicinal characteristics then they are termed under pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals is an interdisciplinary field that deals with the composition and properties of drugs as well as the drugs’ interactions, therapy, toxicology and its possible pharmaceutical applications based on its anti-pathogenic capabilities. Pharmacology is often confused with the term pharmacy. Pharmacy is a field of medical science that is concerned with effectiveness and safe usage of medicines whilst pharmacology is the study of drug interactions within organism that cause change in functions of biological systems. Pharmacology research papers typically tend to focus upon the newest drugs and their possible effects on the human body.

Pharmacology term and research papers are mainly written in ACS style but CSE/CBE Style are also seldom used depending upon institutional requirements such as word limit. In the seventeenth century, pharmacology did not receive much attention but due to the newly discovered effects of morphine, digitalis and quinine in the nineteenth century, the need for better knowledge of these drugs was recognized. Accordingly, pharmacology was recognized as a separate and viable field of medical sciences in order to facilitate better understandings of therapeutic and poisonous effects of drugs. Initial pharmacological drugs were mainly plant extracts but due to advancements in the 19th century, pharmacology applied the fundamentals of experimentations to achieve improved therapeutic effects of various drugs.