Natural Health Products

Objectives

The aim of the curricular unit is learning the fundamentals of Natural Products, including knowledge of the various classes of secondary metabolites, their biosynthesis, its importance and health applications. Such knowledge will give to the student: i) an overview of the role of natural products in health; ii) the ability to rationalize the formation of natural products; iii) selecting appropriate methods to search new natural products with medical application.

Program

Natural Products in Health

a) The various perspectives of what is meant "natural products".

b) Safety and legislation natural products trade.

c) Natural products as a source of secondary metabolites.

d) Study methodology to be applied in the search for natural products with pharmacological application.

e) Classes of secondary metabolites: polyketides and fatty acids, terpenes, phenylpropanoids, alkaloids.

e) Biosynthesis of the major classes of secondary metabolites

f) Spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques applied to the study of natural products.

g) Natural products in health: case study of Azorean species.

Teaching Methodologies

The curricular unit will be based on the presentation of schemes / images (Power Point) illustrating objects, concepts and processes under analysis. During the classes will be proposed and analyzed with students, real cases of natural products with application in health care.

Bibliography

Medicinal Natural Products A Biosynthetic Approach. Paul M Dewick, 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, ISBNs: 0471496405 (Hardback); 0471496413 (paperback); 0470846275 (Electronic)

Molecules and medicine, E. J. Corey, B. Czakó, L. Kurti, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, 2007.

Biossíntese de Produtos Naturais, A. M. Lobo & A. M. Lourenço (Ed.), IST Press, Lisboa, 2007

Ngo et al., 21st Century natural product research and drug development and traditional medicines. Nat. Prod. Rep., 2013, 30, 584.

Bucar et al., Natural product isolation – how to get from biological material to pure compounds. Nat. Prod. Rep., 2013, 30, 525

Siró et al., Functional food. Product development, marketing and consumer acceptance—A review. Appetite 2008, 51, 456.

Cragg and Newman, Natural products: A continuing source of novel drug leads. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta General 2013, 1830, 3670.