Pharmacognosy 1

Frontal lessons
· The pharmacognosy: introduction, definition and history of Pharmacognosy and Parmacotherapy. Concept of medicinal plant, drugs, active ingredients, drugs organized and not; the Pharmacopoeias.
· Phytocomplex: chemical and pharmacological properties (interactions between components).
· Variability factors of the content of active principles: endogenous and ontogenetic factors, exogenous factors, artificial or technical factors.
· Identification of a drug: macroscopic and microscopic characteristics, some examples.
· Overview on extraction systems for herbal drugs and their characteristics.
· Quality controls on herbal drugs: botanical, microscopic, chemical, and standardization according to the rules of the Pharmacopoeia. Examples of monografphs examples regarding quality control.
· Sophistication, adulteration falsifications, alterations: definitions and examples
· Preservation of Drug: freeze-drying, drying of crude drugs, stabilization, contamination
· Secondary Metabolism and its functions in the physiology of plants, the main cycles of biosynthetic compounds metabolism.
· Basic knowledge of the main classes of active ingredients from herbal drugs: phenolic and poliphenolic compound (coumarin, lignans, flavonoids, quinones/anthraquinones, tannins, cyanogenic glycosides, terpens (essential oils), alkaloids, fibres, gums and mucilages)
· Biotechnology applied to medicinal plants: selection, hybridization, genetic mutation, in vitro cultures of plant cells and genetic manipulations.
· Galenic and herbal formulations
· Non conventional medicine

- Seminars by experts in the field of medicinal plants are also provided.

Laboratory exercises
During laboratory exercises, students will recognize and identify different classes of compound from herbal drugs with a pharmacological effect by means of:
· identification of tannins in different herbal drugs through three different assays: flocculate formation in a 'salt-jelly' reaction, reaction of iron chloride, reaction with butanol;
· evaluation of mucilages content in two different type of seeds, flax and psyllium, using the swelling index;
· identification of anthraquinones on cascara, frangola cortex and senna-cassia leaves through direct extraction with potassium chloride and using the Borntrager reaction;
· identification of quinines on Chincona calisaya cortex through acidification with sulfuric acid and evaluation of fluorescence emitted by quinine sulfate using the UV light;
·recognition of the saponins in the Horse chestnut seeds and in the fruits of Castanea sativa through the foaming index
· preparation of two hydroalcoholic extracts starting from capitula of Matricaria chamomilla L. and Anthemis nobilis L. Evaluation of the different composition in flavonoids and phenolic acids of the two types of chamomile via TLC assay.