Phytotherapy

Data

Official data in SubjectManager for the following academic year: 2024-2025

Topic

This course, similarly to the course of Szeged University, would like to provide knowledge about medicinal plants and their products used in the medical practice. Today many people purchase medicinal plants and herbal products to prevent or cure diseases. Therefore specialists (physicians and pharmacists) should become acquainted with medicinal plants and drugs that are used in pharmacotherapy (especially in phytotherapy) both in Hungary and abroad. During the interactive lectures, we would like to introduce the most important medicinal plants and their drugs which are characterized according to their active compounds, usage, dosage, interactions with other drugs and side-effects. Moreover, we highlight the results of preclinical experiments and/or human studies of the most important medicinal plants. We will show the official Herbal Monographs prepared by HMPC (Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products) and accepted by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA). A European Union herbal monograph comprises the scientific opinion of the HMPC on safety and efficacy data concerning a herbal substance and its preparations intended for medicinal use. The HMPC evaluates scientifically all available information including non-clinical and clinical data but also documented long-standing use and experience in the European Union.

Because the medicinal use of different herbal products containing algae or mushrooms are highly popular, we would like to characterize and evaluate critically these products, as well.

The aim of the phytotherapy course is to show the most important medicinal plants, their products and their use in the medical practice, to highlight the possible side-effects and interactions, which may occur during their application. We want to call students’ attention to the presence of adulterated herbal product being on the markets and on the internet. We hope that medical students having up-to-date knowledge about medicinal plants and their well-established use in the therapy can give appropriate advice to laypersons, who use a lot of herbal medicines, sometimes with or without medical supervision.

Lectures

• 1. Definition of phytotherapy and its scope. Scientific and English name of medicinal plants and drugs. Different levels of the evaluation of herbal products: from in vitro experiments to human studies. - Horváth Györgyi
• 2.

  Natural substances in pharmaceutical research. Categories of herbal products: (traditional) herbal medicine, herbal tea and dietary supplement.

  - Horváth Györgyi
• 3.

  Medicinal plants in the treatment of respiratory diseases.

  - Horváth Györgyi
• 4.

  Medicinal plants in the treatment of cardiovascular disease

  - Horváth Györgyi
• 5.

  Sedative and anxiolytic medicinal plants.

  - Horváth Györgyi
• 6.

  Medicinal plants in the treatment of urogenital diseases.

  - Horváth Györgyi
• 7.

  Medicinal plants in the treatment of gastrointestinal tract diseases.

  - Horváth Györgyi
• 8.

  Medicinal plants in the treatment of locomotor disorders.

  - Horváth Györgyi
• 9.

  Antimicrobial activity of medicinal plants containing essential oils.

  - Horváth Györgyi
• 10.

  Medicinal plants in the treatment of skin disorders.

  - Horváth Györgyi
• 11.

  Medicinal plants in the treatment of gynecological disorders.

  - Horváth Györgyi
• 12. Written test. - Horváth Györgyi
• 13. Written exam, B chance - Horváth Györgyi
• 14. Written exam, C chance - Horváth Györgyi

Practices

Seminars

Reading material

Obligatory literature

Literature developed by the Department

- Farkas Á., Horváth Gy., Molnár P.: Pharmacognosy 1. Digital learning material (TÁMOP-4.1.2.A/1-11/1-2011-0016 project), 2014.

- Horváth Gy., Molnár P., Bencsik T.: Pharmacognosy 2. Digital learning material (TÁMOP-4.1.2.A/1-11/1-2011-0016 project), 2014.

- PowerPoint presentations based on the lectures.

Notes

Recommended literature

- ESCOP Monographs. The Scientific Foundation for Herbal Medicinal Products. 2nd edition. Thieme, Exeter - Stuttgart - New York, 2003

- Williamson E., Driver S., Baxter K. (eds.): Stockley's Herbal Medicines Interactions. Pharmaceutical Press, London, 2009.

- Evans W.C.: Trease and Evans Pharmacognosy. Saunders, London-New York, 2000

- Aronson J.K. (ed.): Meyler's Side Effects of Herbal Medicines. Elsevier, Amsterdam-Oxford-Tokyo, 2009

- Barnes J., Anderson L.A., Phillipson J.D.: Herbal Medicines. 2nd edition. Pharmaceutical Press, London-Chicago, 2002

Conditions for acceptance of the semester

One written exam is compulsory during the semester. There is two possibilities to rewrite the test.

Mid-term exams

One written exam is compulsory during the semester. There is two possibilities to rewrite the test.

Making up for missed classes

There is no possibility to make up for the missed lecture.

Exam topics/questions

Topics of the written test is similar to the topics of the lectures.

Examiners

Instructor / tutor of practices and seminars