The earliest known Chinese manual on materia medica is the Shennong Ben Cao Jing (The Divine Farmers Herb-Root Classic'), dating back to the first century AD. It was compiled during the Han dynasty and was attributed to the mythical Shennong. Earlier literature included lists of prescriptions for specific ailments, exemplified by a manuscript "Recipes for 52 Ailments", found in the Mawangdui, sealed in 168 BC. Present-day Chinese pharmacy is a result of pharmaceutical exchanges between China and the rest of the world in the past centuries.
The earliest known compilation of medicinal substances in Indian traditional medicine dates to the third or fourth century AD (attributed to Sushruta, who is recorded as a physician of the sixth century BC).
There is a stone sign for a pharmacy with a tripod, a mortar, and a pestle opposite one for a doctor in the Arcadian Way in Ephesus, Turkey.
In Japan, at the end of the Asuka period (538–710) and the early Nara period (710–794), the men who fulfilled roles similar to those of modern pharmacists were highly respected. The place of pharmacists in society was expressly defined in the Taihō Code (701) and re-stated in the Yōrō Code (718). Ranked positions in the pre-Heian Imperial court were established; and this organizational structure remained largely intact until the Meiji Restoration (1868). In this highly stable hierarchy, the pharmacists—and even pharmacist assistants—were assigned status superior to all others in health-related fields such as physicians and acupuncturists. In the Imperial household, the pharmacist was even ranked above the two personal physicians of the Emperor.