Welcome, dear student, to the pharmacognosy department

The department is pleased to take you on a tour that begins with introducing you to pharmacognosy, which is concerned with the study of medicines derived from natural sources, which include plants and animals in addition to marine and other types of living organisms, including microbes such as bacteria and fungi.

During the tour, we will study the phenotypic and microscopic properties of different medicinal plants and ways to increase the active substances in them, in addition to the methods of drying and preparing them for use in the manufacture of pharmaceutical preparations. We also discuss the possible ways to adulterate these drugs and how to detect them.

Then we move on to studying the most important wild and cultivated medicinal plants that are used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries in the global and Egyptian market, passing through the identification of the main components, popular uses and clinically proven uses of these medicinal plants. We also address the potential herbal-pharmacological interactions of selected examples of these drugs and then take an overview of the phytopharmaceuticals available in the market, especially the Egyptian market.

Then we move on to studying the chemically active ingredients and methods of extracting them from their natural sources, in addition to identifying the methods used to separate and purify them using modern chromatographic methods, with a study of the spectral analysis methods used to identify the structural composition of the active compounds.

This is followed by introducing you to how to assess the quality of herbal products using modern chromatographic and spectroscopic methods with an overview of forensic pharmacology including plants and their natural products that may pose health risks.

Finally, dear undergraduate student, the department introduces you to the principles of herbal medicine. It also shows you the foundations of complementary and alternative medicine with a focus on herbal remedies and nutritional supplements, as well as treatment using essential oils and their impact on maintaining optimal health and preventing diseases.

At the level of postgraduate studies, the Department of Pharmacognosy offers you, dear graduate, a distinguished program for obtaining a master’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences (specializing in pharmacognosy), which includes four specialized courses that include separation and identification of natural substances using advanced chromatographic techniques and the study of international standards for quality assurance of drugs of plant origin; This is in addition to studying the importance of microbial transformation in developing new medicines from natural products of plant origin, and finally studying the use of spectroscopic methods in identifying natural products and elucidating their chemical structure.

As for my dear students in the Ph.D. program, the Department of Pharmacognosy offers you six specialized courses, we start with a study of the importance of natural products in the discovery of drugs, passing through the use of various modern biotechnology methods in order to produce plants of medical importance, and then selected topics in the specialization of drugs that deal with the important aspects of the labor market and the outputs. Finally, this program provides you with practical training in the field of preparation and delivery of specialized seminars.

And last but not least, the complementary and alternative herbal medicine diploma program offers you, dear student, seven courses that we start with herbal medicine and modern methods used in drug research, in addition to modern methods used in

the cultivation and propagation of medicinal plants. The courses also include clarification of how medicinal plants are produced and the methods used to confirm the quality of medicinal herbs according to the standards of the World Health Organization, as well as the therapeutic effect and chemical composition of volatile oils.

In conclusion, I wish you an enjoyable study and I also hope that God will pay our steps with good and crown our work with success.

     Head of the department

 Prof. Dr./ Rabab Abdel Moneim El Deeb