The future of pharmacognosy in academic education

摘要

Plants are one of the most important and oldest resources of preparations used in medicine, and pharmacognosy is an integral part of academic education of pharmacists. While this special field originally consisted of the identification of medicinal plants and of the knowledge about their constituents, pharmacological effects and therapeutic efficacy, during the past 20 years a new development with a clear focus on molecular biology has been observed. This trend was linked to research on biosynthesis and elucidation of molecular mechanisms of action of biologically active natural substances thus leading to the identification of new targets in order to develop new active substances for modern medicinal products.