Department of Pharmacy, Division of Pharmacognosy and Natural Products Chemistry, NKUA

The Division of Pharmacognosy and Natural Products Chemistry (DPNPC) belongs to the Department of Pharmacy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The main research activities of DPNPC include the discovery of new active natural products with various applications, such as pharmaceuticals, food supplements, cosmetics and agrochemicals based on the Greek, Mediterranean and global biodiversity. In that scope, DPNPC has an extensive library of plants numbering more than 1000 species, most of which are endemic.

In particular, the main activities of the DPNPC include:

• the extraction and isolation of natural products on a laboratory and pilot scale, focusing on the application of advanced techniques and the optimization of extraction / isolation protocols, with particular emphasis on the use of "green" techniques
• the isolation and identification of new molecules with possible biological activity
• the development and application of analytical methods for the qualitative and quantitative characterization of extracts, fractions, and pure substances, with possible application in quality control and authentication studies
• the metabolomic study of extracts and biological materials using state-of-the-art technologies such as high-resolution mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, with the aim of discovering biomarker molecules
• the development and validation of analytical methods for the qualitative and quantitative determination of natural products and biomarker compounds in biological fluids and other substrates
• the semi-synthesis and lead scaffold modification of natural products for the increase of their bioactivity
• the preliminary evaluation of the biological activity of extracts and pure compounds using enzymatic assays