KE513: Natural Product Chemistry and Pharmacognosy (5 ECTS)

STADS: 10001401

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:
FF503 (or KE501 Fundamental Chemistry) is presumed known. It is recommended to attend KE505 Organic chemistry simultaneously at the latest.

TEK-students: Bachelor in Technological Science (Chemistry) or similar, or admitted to a Master of Science in Engineering - Chemistry

Course introduction
The purpose of the course is to provide the participants with fundamental knowledge of natural product chemistry including the distribution and biosynthesis of natural products and their function within biological systems, as well as knowledge of drugs, drug extracts and bioactive natural products from plants and fungi that are used for production of medicine and herbal remedies.

Expected learning outcome
After ending the course the students are expected to be able to:

• Classify natural products based on their chemical structure and indicate their possible biosynthesis.
• Estimate the characteristics of natural products and their structure/activity relationships as well as their possible effect and mode of actions in biological systems, including humans/animals.
• Estimate the effect of well-known herbal remedies and drugs based on their content of potential bioactive compounds.
• Explain the difference between herbalmedicinal products, traditional herbal medicinal products, and food supplements.
• Explain the general principles on how to isolate and characterise bioactive natural products from plants and fungi.
• Describe the content of research papers within the subjects and be critical towards the content and conclusions draw.
• Describe the subject in writing and orally.

Subject overview

1. Biosynthesis of secondary metabolites: The acetate/polyketide pathway, the mevalonate and deoxyxylulose phosphate pathway, the shikimate pathway and the biosynthesis of alkaloids.
2. Distribution of secondary metabolites in plants, including chemotaxonomy.
3. Biological activity of secondary metabolites their effect, mode of action and function in biological systems, including secondary metabolites isolated from medicinal plants/fungi and used as drugs, model compounds for the development of new drugs or as start materials for semi-synthetic drugs.
4. Methods for the isolation of bioactive natural products by 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:
3-hour written exam. Marks according to the Danish 7-point marking scale. External examiner.

Re-exam in the same exam period or immediately thereafter. The mode of exam at the reexamination may differ from the mode of exam at the ordinary exam.

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

Language
This course is taught in Danish.

Course enrollment
See deadline of enrolment.

Tuition fees for single courses
See fees for single courses.