Pharmacognosy is the science of bioactive nature-derived compound with pharmaceutical or nutraceutical applications. Traditional Chinese medicine and herbal medicine use many crude herbs or extracts. Understanding the origin, identification, development, production, quality control and usage of traditional Chinese medicine and other natural products are important for drug development, phytotherapy, and nutraceuticals. This introductory course will first cover the fundamentals of modern pharmacy and medicine, and the basic concepts of traditional Chinese medicine. Next, the extraction of various chemical constituents, authentication analysis and quality control of plant derived extracts, and the regulatory measures of traditional Chinese medicine will be discussed. More advanced topics including application of pharmaceutically active compounds in common diseases; good agricultural, cultivation, manufacturing practices of traditional Chinese medicine; herbal-drug interactions, etc. will be introduced.
3 units · Letter (ABCD/NP)
Pharmacognosy is the science of bioactive nature-derived compound with pharmaceutical or nutraceutical applications. Traditional Chinese medicine and herbal medicine use many crude herbs or extracts. Understanding the origin, identification, development, production, quality control and usage of traditional Chinese medicine and other natural products are important for drug development, phytotherapy, and nutraceuticals. This introductory course will first cover the fundamentals of modern pharmacy and medicine, and the basic concepts of traditional Chinese medicine. Next, the extraction of various chemical constituents, authentication analysis and quality control of plant derived extracts, and the regulatory measures of traditional Chinese medicine will be discussed. More advanced topics including application of pharmaceutically active compounds in common diseases; good agricultural, cultivation, manufacturing practices of traditional Chinese medicine; herbal-drug interactions, etc. will be introduced.
Offered in Autumn 2025 at Stanford University.