Pharmacognosy

Pharmacognosy is one of the fundamental disciplines of pharmaceutical science; it conducts research on obtaining new drug molecules from natural sources such as medicinal plants and microorganisms, and examines the chemical, physical and biological properties of these molecules. The science of pharmacognosy focuses mainly on the discovery of new drug molecules from natural sources and on investigating the therapeutic or prophylactic effects of traditionally used medicinal plants.

The Department of Pharmacognosy covers:

• Isolation and purification of compounds from natural sources

• Ethnobotanical studies

• Phytotherapy

• Quality control and standardization of herbal products

• Structural analysis of phytochemical compounds

• Investigation of the biological activities of phytochemical compounds

• Efficacy analysis of traditionally used herbal products

• Drug-plant interactions