Book | Turkish Pharmaceutical Preparations

Mavi Boncuk |
A Rare Book Shedding Light on the History of Pharmacy in Turkey
See Also: Turkish Pharmaceutical Preparations (1929) Sandalci, Mert |Tekiner, Halil | Mat, Afife

Shortly before the proclamation of the Republican regime in Turkey in September 1923, a congress was held in Izmir to determine the country’s new economic policy. One of the decisions made at this congress was to encourage private entrepreneurship and to protect domestic industries from outside competition. As a consequence, the Law for the Encouragement of Industry was enacted in 1927. This led to a flourishing climate in which pharmacists brought their own preparations (products) to the market. In order to encourage physicians and pharmacists to use domestic products and to introduce their producers to the public, a 269-page book entitled Turkish Pharmaceutical Preparations was published in Istanbul in 1929 by pharmacist Mehmed Daim. This book includes information on laboratories of 29 pharmacists and their pharmaceutical products. Despite the fact that the exact number of copies of the book is still unknown, only two copies have been found so far. Since so much from this period remains unknown, an examination of this book is believed to contribute to the field of Turkish history of pharmacy.