About

The department of Pharmacognosy at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS) along with the Departments of Pharmaceutics, Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology are among the first groups formed in Mashhad School of Pharmacy after its establishment in 1350. In the early years, the main research interest of the department included natural products derived from almost all organic sources such as animals, plants, and minerals. In the following years, the biotechnological courses were also added to the syllabus of the department. By separation of Biotechnology Department in 2008, the Department of Pharmacognosy has just undertaken educational and research activity in the field of natural herbal medicine. In 2011, with the approval of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, the department started an undergraduate program and since then, related courses have been teaching continuously. The late Dr. Ali Zargari, Dr. Shahram Yaghmaei, Dr. Giti Hariri Zadeh, Dr. Mohammad Ramezani, Dr. Javad Behravan and Dr. Javad Asili were among the leaders of this group.

Goals and Prospects

The purpose for establishing the Department of Pharmacognosy at MUMS is providing the natural product-based syllabus for graduate students of pharmaceutical sciences. The syllabus includes medicinal botany, phytochemistry, and pharmacognosy. By taking these courses, students are introduced to medicinal plants and get familiar with the major constituents of primary and secondary herbal metabolites that have therapeutic effects and how to isolate, identify and quantify them. After passing these courses, pharmaceutical students are able to deliver these drugs in pharmacies and clinics while acquainted with herbal medicines or medicines of natural origin. On the other hand, students learn how to identify and quantify natural compounds from natural sources and biologic studies such as antioxidant, antibacterial, cytotoxic, etc. and how to formulate drugs. For this purpose, the required laboratories including, medicinal herbs, pharmacognosy, HPLC, GC-MS and bioassays are considered in this group. Moreover, graduated students of pharmaceutical sciences and phytochemistry can enter the undergraduate programs, by which educational and research needs of pharmacy schools, research centers, and pharmaceutical industries are met. Besides, conducting applied research to evaluate the pharmacological effects of natural compounds, production of natural herbal medicines, and conducting common research projects with other international scientific centers are among the other achievements of the group. In their PhD projects, PhD candidates get familiar with not only with basic knowledge about isolation and identification of natural compounds but also with new topics in the field such as metabolomics.