FA505: Natural Products Chemistry and Pharmacognosy (5 ECTS)

STADS: 03000701

Level
Bachelor course

Teaching period
The course is offered in the autumn semester.

Teacher responsible
Email: lpc@kbm.sdu.dk

Timetable
Show entire timetable
Show personal time table for this course.

Prerequisites:
None

Academic preconditions:
Students taking the course are expected to:

• Have fundamental knowledge of organic chemistry and biochemistry
• Be able to use their knowledge about organic chemistry to understand fundamental reactions between natural products, including electrophilic addition reactions, nucleophilic addition and substitution reactions, electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions, Claisen- and Aldol-type reactions, reduction and oxidation reactions, rearrangement reactions etc.

It is recommended to attend KE505 Organic chemistry simultaneously at the latest.

Course introduction
The aim of the course is to enable the student to achieve a fundamental knowledge to natural products chemistry, including the distribution of secondary metabolites, biosynthesis and their function in biological systems and knowledge about herbal substances, herbal extracts and bioactive natural products in plants and fungi, which is important in regard to the understanding of the origin, mode of action, use and production of herbal remedies and pharmaceuticals.

The course builds on the knowledge acquired in the courses organic chemistry (KE505), Fundamental molecular biology (BMB504), Physiology and pharmacology for pharmacists (SU516 and SU517), Pharmaceutical toxicology (BB523), and gives an academic basis for studying the topics drug formulation, toxicology and pharmacology, that are part of the degree.

In relation to the competence profile of the degree it is the explicit focus of the course to:

• Give the competence to classify natural products based on their chemical structure and indicate their possible biosynthesis and to identify pharmacophore groups in bioactive natural products
• Give skills to evaluate the properties of bioactive natural products and their structure-activity relations, their pharmacological effects and possible mode of actions.
• Give knowledge and understanding of the origin and mode of actions of pharmaceuticals and herbal remedies and the overall principle in how to isolate and characterize bioactive natural products from plants and microorganisms and the difference between herbal remedies, traditional herbal medicines and food supplements.

Expected learning outcome
The learning objectives of the course is that the student demonstrates the ability to:

• Classify natural products from their chemical structure and to indicate their possible biosynthesis
• Assess the properties of bioactive natural products and their structure-activity relations, their pharmacological effects and possible mode of actions in biological systems, in particular humans and animals.
• Assess the health promoting and pharmacological effects of herbal substances and herbal extracts based on their content of bioactive natural products.
• Explain the difference between herbal remedies, traditional herbal medicines and food supplements.
• Explain the overall principles on how to isolate and characterize
  bioactive natural products  from plants and microorganisms
• Communicate and relate critically to the content in scientific papers on the subject. 

Subject overview
The following main topics are contained in the course:

• Biosynthesis of secondary metabolites: acetate/polyketide biosynthesis, mevalonic acid and deoxyxylulose phosphate biosynthesis, shikimic acid biosynthesis and the biosynthesis of alkaloids.
• Distribution of secondary metabolites in plants, including chemotaxonomy.
• Biological activity of secondary metabolites and their effect, mode of actions, and function in biological systems, including plants and microorganisms, and their semi-synthetic derivatives.
• Methods for the isolation of bioactive natural products using for example assay- and bioassay guided chromatographic fractionation.

Literature

• Paul M. Dewick: Medicinal Natural Products, A Biosynthetic Approach, 3rd ed., 2009.
• udvalgte artikler og noter.

Website
This course uses e-learn (blackboard).

Prerequisites for participating in the exam
None.

Assessment and marking:

1. Written exam (3 hours). Exam aids allowed. Danish 7-mark scale, external marking. A closer description of the exam rules will be posted under 'Course Information' on Blackboard. (5 ECTS). (03000702).

Expected working hours
The teaching method is based on three phase model.
Intro phase: 32 hours
Skills training phase: 18 hours, hereof:
 - Tutorials: 18 hours

Educational activities

Educational form

Language
This course is taught in Danish.

Course enrollment
See deadline of enrolment.

Tuition fees for single courses
See fees for single courses.