Natural product chemistry as an important topic in pharmacy education: Situational analysis and recommendations

The foundational discipline from which the practice of Pharmacy has emerged is commonly recognized as Pharmacognosy. This field can be defined as the study of medicinal plants and their derivatives, reflecting the historical evolution of drug use, which has transitioned from the formulation of crude herbal remedies to the sophisticated isolation and characterization of active pharmaceutical compounds in the realm of drug discovery. No scientific subject remains static and a modern and comprehensive definition of Pharmacognosy includes the analysis of biogenic or naturally derived pharmaceuticals, as well as naturally occurring poisons. Rapid advancements of analytical techniques in phytochemistry, such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry, which have greatly enhanced our ability to identify and quantify bioactive compounds and made Pharmacognostical research very informative and interesting. Pharmacognosy is confronted with many challenges.

The objective of this review is to assess the current situation of Pharmacognosy, as a subject, in the curriculums in some colleges of Pharmacy in Middle East, Arab region and some non-Arab African countries; and to evaluate its accompaniment with the global increase focus in phytochemistry and biological activities in natural products.

A list of all Arab, Middle East countries and top ten non-Arab African universities was obtained from the website. The top 10 universities of each country were obtained from (www.edurank.org). Each university was individually searched if it contains a faculty of Pharmacy or not through its official website, if the university has no faculty of Pharmacy it was excluded from the study. Then, the official websites of the selected faculties of Pharmacy were used to obtain the needed information of our study.

A total of 22 Middle East and Arab countries were assessed, including 80 universities. Only 43 faculties (53.75 %) have a separate Pharmacognosy department. Of the 66 faculties, 29 (43.9 %) study courses in applied Pharmacognosy, while 37 (56.1 %) do not study any advanced topics in their curriculum. Out of 66 faculties, 28 (42.4 %) include Phytotherapy courses in their curriculum, while 38 (57.6 %) do not. In non-Arab African countries, 7 out of 10 faculties (70 %) have a Pharmacognosy department; only 1 (10 %) lacks relevant courses. Additionally, 8 faculties (80 %) cover applied Pharmacognosy topics, and 9 faculties (90 %) study Phytotherapy or related subjects.

It is essential to address these new requirements while considering the historical foundations of Pharmacognosy (classical Pharmacognosy) alongside modern advancements in the field. Universities in second world and developing countries could enhance their research in Pharmacognosy, which could improve their ratings and rankings among international institutions.