Pharmacists or their pharmaceutical equivalents have
been responsible for compounding medicines for cen
turies. Recently this role has been challenged in the
pharmaceutical literature with suggestions and recom
mendations that it is inappropriate for the pharmaceu
tical practitioner to compound medicines in a local
pharmacy environment. Notwithstanding this valid
debate, it is clear that a vast array of skills and knowl
edge with regard to medicines’ compounding has been
accrued and refined, certainly over the last two centu
ries. In the present environment it is possible that this
knowledge and skill base might be dispersed and ulti
mately lost. However, it is not beyond the bounds of
imagination to conceive that there will be times, albeit
possibly in the face of some form of environmental,
cultural or local emergency, when pharmacists might
be called upon to extemporaneously compound med
icines when conventional supply chains are either
unavailable or have broken down.
This text has been designed with a number of func
tions in mind. First, it is important to be aware of some
of the historical pathways that have led to the present
technological position of pharmacists. In addition,
unless many of the antiquated measuring systems,
methodologies and formulations are preserved in
some reference work, they might be lost forever, or
at least be totally unavailable except to the dogged
historian. Primarily, however, this work is intended
as a reference based tutorial to the methods employed
in medicines’ compounding. The text has been designed
to allow students and practitioners to be able to exam
ine either all or part of the subsequent chapters in order
to familiarise themselves with the compounding tech
niques necessary to produce products of appropriate
quality and efficacy. In addition, the text is supported
by moving images in order to augment the necessary
techniques and expertise.
The text also has a role when considering the
design and implementation of standard operating pro
cedures (SOPs) pertinent to certain sectors of profes
sional practice today. Although we do not expect all
practitioners of pharmacy to be compounding medi
cines on a daily basis, we hope that should the need
arise this text will effectively support any work of this
nature that might be encountered.
This second edition has updated the first edition
and, to assist the student compounder, the text now
includes examples of the pharmaceutical label for each
worked example.