The Department of Pharmacognosy in the School of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, was established in 1961. Its background refers to the traditional history of more than ten centuries and has produced more than 50 outstanding and talented Ph.D. graduates in pharmacognosy. Pharmacognosy is the science of bioactive natural substances found in plants, animals, microbes and minerals. Researchers in this field investigate natural compounds, new therapeutic agents and also medicinal plants that include the subjects of botany, chemistry, and pharmacology.
All undergraduate students are required to pass 16 core and noncore credits in the Department of Pharmacognosy. Training Ph.D. students in this field began in 1986. Ph.D. students are required to pass about 20 theoretical-practical core credits and 16 noncore credits and about 20 credits of thesis. They have active participation in research projects. Educational and research centers, industries and related organizations need to have experts in this field.
Our graduate program is dedicated to the training of outstanding scientists in the natural product sciences and aims to contribute to the multidisciplinary drug research and development from natural products, using the rich flora of Iran. Currently, the Department has a complement of 8 faculty members including 5 professors, 2 associate professor and 1 assistant professor and also 4 laboratory staff. The teaching and research facilities in the department include standard laboratories with relevant equipment supports in addition to other useful items accessible to the Department from other university units. There is a herbarium, housed in the Department, for medicinal plant authentication and conservation and a botanical garden that functions as an educational display of medicinal herbs. Our Department has a great diversity of research areas available to trainees including photochemistry, bio-assay, clinical study, pharmacoeconomy, taxonomy, etc.
Our devoted faculty members try to make a sociable place for every interested person in natural products, and we wish you have a productive and enjoyable experience with us.
This department is established in the centeral campus and includes classroom buildings, education research laboratories, a herbarium and a herboratum. There are 4 laboratories with great facilities, and there is a herbarium with international code (TEH) to keep numerous medicinal species. The students can attend various retraining courses and workshops during the semester. Also close cooperation among all students, staff and members of the department can be obviously felt in all parts of education.
Mission & Vision
Members of this department conduct research in different fields of natural products. The mission of this department is to train students according to the high quality education and latest scientific information.
The objectives of this department are as follows:
• Teaching natural products to have qualified pharmacist
• Preparing Ph.D. students to be successful researchers, university members and executive agents in the Ministry of Health
• Doing research on extraction, isolation and purification of natural compounds and optimization of all related procedures
• Doing research for discovering above compounds from natural sources for treatment of special diseases like AIDS, cancer, malaria, etc.
• Defining quality control methods for assurance of making standard products with desirable safety and efficacy
• Biological assay of natural products
• Economic studies about the herbal medicine industry
• Management and industrial policy in herbal medicine
• Designing the processes to produce herbal and natural medicine