Department of Pharmacognosy and pharmaceutical chemistry

The department of Pharmacognosy and pharmaceutical chemistry was founded in April 2014. The training of undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacy students takes place in the building located on 120 Brothers Buxton Bld. and includes the following disciplines:

Pharmaceutical chemistry is an essential part of pharmaceutical education. It has interdisciplinary character and combines aspects of organic chemistry, pharmacology, biochemistry and other disciplines. The course of pharmaceutical chemistry includes drug discovery and development, dug design, chemical structures, structure-activity relationship, syntheses, metabolism, pharmacological action and other important topics.

During the course of Pharmaceutical analysis, students will be exposed to advance knowledge on modern techniques and instrumental analysis for quality assurance and quality control of drugs. Teaching of theory and applications is through lectures and seminars. To supplement the lectures there is a programme of laboratory classes. The laboratory work is carried out in our teaching laboratories which are equipped with advances analytical instruments, such as HPLC, UV-VIS spectrophotometer, Infrared Spectrophotometer and others. Students will gain key skills in the area of pharmaceutical analysis: evaluation and interpretation of data, application of analytical techniques.

The course of Pharmacognosy provides pharmacy students with the necessary theoretical knowledge and practical skills for medicinal plants collection process, identification, qualitative and quantitative methods for analyses of their chemical composition. Students will also gain knowledge about the pharmacological effects and therapeutic applications of the medicinal plants and plant-based pharmaceutical products. The Pharmacognosy course will help the pharmacists in their future work in drugstores, distribution or industrial manufacture of phytopharmaceutical products.

Academic Staff

Section “Pharmaceutical chemistry and Pharmaceutical analysis”

Associate Professor Kalin Ivanov, PhD – Head of the Department

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: kalin.ivanov@mu-plovdiv.bg

Associate Professor Stanislava Ivanova, PhD– Responsible for research activities

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: stanislava.ivanova@mu-plovdiv.bg

Chief Assistant Professor Stoyan Papanov, PhD

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: stoyan.papanov@mu-plovdiv.bg

Assistant Professor Velislava Todorova

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: velislava.todorova@mu-plovdiv.bg

Assistant Professor Stanislav Dyankov

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: stanislav.dyankov@mu-plovdiv.bg

Assistant Professor Zoya Dzhakova

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: zoya.dzhakova@mu-plovdiv.bg

Section “Pharmacognosy”

Associate Professor Niko Benbasat, PhD

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: niko.benbasat@mu-plovdiv.bg

Chief Assistant Professor Paolina Lukova, PhD- Administrative assistant

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: paolina.lukova@mu-plovdiv.bg

Chief Assistant Professor Diana Karcheva-Bahchevanska, PhD

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: diana.karcheva@mu-plovdiv.bg

Assistant Professor Daniela Seymenska – Responsible for teaching activities

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: daniela.seymenska@mu-plovdiv.bg

Assistant Professor Vanya Nalbantova – Responsible for quality control

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: vanya.nalbantova@mu-plovdiv.bg

Assistant Professor Borislava Lechkova – Responsible for work safety

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: borislava.lechkova@mu-plovdiv.bg

Yoana Georgieva- biologist

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: yoana.georgieva@mu-plovdiv.bg

Nuray Myumyunova- chemist – Financially responsible person

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: nmyumyunova@mu-plovdiv.bg

Gabriela Lomska– chemist

Phone: 032 200 766
e-mail: gabriela.lomska@mu-plovdiv.bg

Research

The main directions in the research work of the department are:

Characterization of the chemical composition of biologically active extracts from Bulgarian medicinal plants.
Phytochemical analysis of plant polysaccharides and investigation of their biological activities.
Investigation of plant polyphenols biological activities.
Development of food supplements with potential antioxidant, immunostimulatory and antiviral activity.
Development of analytical methods for qualitative and quantitative analysis of non-labeled substances in food supplements;
Development of analytical methods for qualitative and quantitative analysis of doping substances;
Development of analytical methods for qualitative and quantitative analysis of substances monitored by WADA.

Textbooks

Pharmacognosy

1Evans W. Trease and Evans’ Pharmacognosy, 16th Edition, Saunders Ltd., New York, 2009
2.Heinrich M., Barnes J., Gibbons S., Williamson E. Fundamentals of Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy, Elsevier, 2012.
3.Shah B. Textbook of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, 2nd Edition, Elsevier, 2013.
4.European Pharmacopoeia Monographs. European Pharmacopoeia 9, 2016.
5.WHO. Monographs on Selected Medicinal Plants. WHO, Geneva: v.1, 1999; v.2, 2002; v. 3, 2007; v.4, 2009.

Pharmaceutical chemistry

1. Watson, David G. Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Elsevier Health Sciences, 2011.
2. Hill, Raymond G. Drug Discovery and Development,Elsevier Health Sciences, 2012.
3. Donald Cairns,Essentials of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, 4th edition, 2012
4. Jill Barber,Chris Rostron,Pharmaceutical Chemistry, 2013

Pharmaceutical analysis

1. European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.) 9th Edition
2. Watson, David G. Pharmaceutical analysis, Elsevier Health Sciences, 2017
3. Steen Hansen, Stig Pedersen‐Bjergaard, Knut Rasmussen, Introduction to Pharmaceutical Chemical Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, 2012
4. Quality assurance of pharmaceuticals, WHO, second edition

Publications

The academic staff of the Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical chemistry have published more than 140 scientific papers, 27 of them are publications with impact factor. The scientific publications are cited over 250 times. The researchers from the department participated in more than 60 international and 40 national scientific confernces, as well in 10 scientific projects

Monographs

Dissertations

Kalin Ivanov – „Approaches for analytical control of aminoacids in food supplements “;
Stanislava Ivanova – “Pharmacoanalytical control of food supplements with androgenic activity”;
Paolina Lukova – “Study of prebiotic activity of polysaccharides from Bulgarian Plantago L. species”;
Diana Karcheva-Bahchevanska – “Study of the functional properties of polyphenol extracts from Vaccinium L. species on carbohydrate metabolism enzymes”;
Stefka Ivanova – “Regulatory aspects of the treatment of osteoporosis and analytical characteristics of certain steroid-containing drugs”

Education