Pharmacognosy Ii

The course offers details on basic metabolic pathways in plants and animals. These pathways are the origins of secondary metabolites. It also contains crude drug active principles (secondary metabolites), examples of natural products with these active principles, botanical sources, geographical sources, methods of extraction of these active principles and their medicinal values. It also entails extraction and isolation techniques in phytochemical screening of herbal medicines.

COURSE JUSTIFICATION

This course provides a detailed account on the origins of medicines in both plants and animals. It provides the student with the practical skills on medicinal extraction from plant and animal sources.

AIMS OF THE COURSE

To introduce pharmacognostic monographs of important crude drugs and major groups of crude drugs of pharmaceutical importance to students. Introduces the student to biosynthetic pathways and the origins of secondary metabolites, which are the sources of medicines

THE COURSE OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course the students should be able to:

• Identify the main and various chemical groups of active principles of official crude drugs 
  
• Describe vernacular names, botanical and geographical source, historical development and standards of official crude drugs 
  
• Describe conditions for cultivation and collection of crude drugs
  
• Describe organoleptic, macroscopic, microscopic, chemical methods of identification and chemical constituents
  
• Discuss the pharmacological and commercial significance of crude drugs
  
• Distinguishes official drugs from adulterants
  
• Describe the biosynthetic pathways involved in the production of secondary metabolites 8. Identify the powder ingredients of crude drugs