General provisions

Substitutes the section "origin" in the earlier course 3FK028.

Entry requirements

Followed previous courses on the Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy Programme.

For admission to freestanding course, 60 credits chemistry or biology are required.

Learning outcomes

The student should on completion of the course:

• be able to account for the basic principles and processes of discovery and development of new drugs
• be able to explain the role of natural products in development and production of drugs
• be able to account for the most important pharmaceutical substances from nature and their origin, structure and physico-chemical properties
• be able to account for how the laboratory procedures of extraction, isolation and identification of natural products are carried out
• be able to analyse and apply knowledge of basic physico-chemical properties regarding their importance for extraction
• and isolation of natural products
• be able to account for morphology and anatomy of plants and a selection of other organisms
• be able to identify a selection of the most important medicinal plants and account for their pharmaceutical usage and function
• be able to apply knowledge of the organisms' morphology and anatomy in the scientific field of pharmacognosy
• be able to account for basic principles in plant biosynthesis, including the photosynthesis
• be able to apply biosynthesis-based classificatory principles for natural products
• be able to account for basic principles of evolution and evolutionary biology
• be able to explain the value of evolutionary biological classification systems (phylogenies) in pharmacognostic research

Content

The course contains the following subparts:

• The pharmaceutical potential of natural products
• Basic knowledge about raw materials from nature for drug production
• overview of important organism groups with a focus on plants and fungi
• The biosynthesis of plants
• Extraction and isolation of natural products
• Regulatory aspects of herbal drugs
• Quality control and validation
• Narcotic products of natural origin

During the course, the student will train:

• independent thinking
• critical evaluation of sources
• oral presentation

Instruction

The teaching will be carried out in the form of lectures and seminars. Strong emphasis will be placed at the students' own learning and ability to in an independent way seek information and tackle problems.

Compulsory parts include: participation in certain lectures as per schedule and approved implementation of seminars and subtests according to instructions in timetable.

Assessment

Examination: Written examination is carried out at the end of the course (examination code). For admission to written examination, passed subtests (examination code) are required. To pass the course, approved examination and passed compulsory parts (examination code) are required.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.