All aspects of pharmacognosy, phytochemistry, phytotherapy and pharmaceutical biotechnology are investigated, through the support of national and international sponsorships.
The Department’s main projects are:
* Phytochemical analysis of vegetable drugs, plant extracts, essential oils and herbal preparations;
* Development and comparison of trial methods for vegetable drugs in official pharmacopoeias;
* Separation of bioactive constituents by supercritical fluid extraction;
* Study and negative selection of the Cannabis species including genetic methods;
* Bio-assays for the detection of antioxidant activity (free-radical scavenger capacity, inhibition of lipidperoxidation, etc.);
* Chemistry of natural antioxidants;
* Biotechnology: tissue and cell cultures, fermentation, gene-transformation, hairy-root cultures; and
* Factors affecting formation of the biologically active metabolites.