aF1FO1_12 Phytochemistry

Faculty of Pharmacy
Autumn 2025

The course is not taught in Autumn 2025

Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
prof. PharmDr. Karel Šmejkal, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Ing. Ondřej Jurček, Ph.D. et Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
prof. PharmDr. Karel Šmejkal, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
prof. PharmDr. Karel Šmejkal, Ph.D.
Department of Natural Drugs – Departments – Faculty of Pharmacy
Prerequisites
The students should have passed basic subjects touching organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, biology, botany, and physiology.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Abstract
The course examines the relationships between primary and secondary metabolism of plants and focuses on the study of secondary metabolites, their biosynthesis, properties, chemical structure, and methods of isolation from plant material. In this course, students will get acquainted with the methods of phytochemical analysis
Learning outcomes
Basic knowledge of secondary metabolites and methods for their analysis.
Key topics
1 Phytochemistry as the field of science, primary and secondary metabolism.
2 Principles of separation and isolation of natural substances.
3 Systems for classification of natural compounds, secondary metabolites.
4 Chromatography I.
5 Chromatography II.
6 Identification of Natural Products
7 High-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography
8 Spectral methods for identifying natural compounds (UV, IR).
9 Spectral methods for identifying natural compounds (MS).
Laboratory of phytochemistry
1 Introduction, safety, theoretical basics of methods for obtaining content substances from plants
2 Isolation of Natural Products - Floral pigment of Urticae herba extraction (Soxhlet), caffeine microsublimation, Species urologicae compounds extraction (maceration), hydrodistillation of essential oils
3 Separation of natural substances - Thin layer chromatography of floral pigments of Urticae herba extract and phenolic glycosides from the extract of Species urologicae
4 Separation of Natural Products II - Column chromatography of floral pigments
5 Separation and identification of natural substances
Determination of carotenoid pigments by spectrophotometry, measuring of the melting point of crystalline natural substances, SFE demonstration, IR spectrometry demonstration.
6 Identification of Natural Products
High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), HPLC / MS,
7 Final test
Study resources and literature
    recommended literature
  • From herbs to healing : pharmacognosy - phytochemistry - phytotherapy - biotechnology. Edited by Éva Szöke - Ágnes Kéry - Éva Lemberkovics. Cham: Springer, 2023, xvii, 570. ISBN 9783031173004. info
  • Šmejkal K, Muselík J, Mokrý P. Laboratorní metody experimentální fytochemie. Brno, 2013. ISBN 978-80-7305-649-0. info
  • Walton NJ, Brown DJ. Chemicals from Plants: Perspectives on Plant Secondary Products. 1999. ISBN 981-02-2773-6. info
Approaches, practices, and methods used in teaching
lectures, laboratory exercises
Method of verifying learning outcomes and course completion requirements
written test
Language of instruction
Czech
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