Advanced Course
Health properties of natural products
The advanced course in Health properties of natural products, coordinated by prof. Mario Dell’Agli, reaches its fifth edition in the 2024-2025 academic year. The course aims to provide professional preparation in the sector of the use and production of medicinal and medicinal plants and products of natural origin for health and therapeutic purposes.
Interest in using medicinal plants and natural products to promote human health has grown significantly in recent years. The biological and pharmacological properties of medicinal and medicinal plants and their derivatives, the use of which is consolidated in many traditional medicines and provides numerous ideas for modern research, are increasingly being studied to evaluate their efficacy, as well as the safety of use.
Knowledge of the botanical and phytochemical characteristics of medicinal plants, their pharmacological activity and that of the products deriving from them, as well as possible interactions and undesirable effects, are the basis of their rational use in the health and therapeutic fields and of the formulation of products safe and effective.
The course is ECM accredited (50 credits). More information regarding the date of publication of the announcement and how to register they will be available next September.
Objectives of the course
Bringing the academic world closer to that of industrial production is part of the aim of the specialization course and, for this reason, the involvement of important companies in the sector is foreseen, in order to deepen the methodologies for transforming vegetable raw materials into healthy products.
The educational program of the course, which is delivered in e-learning mode with distance lessons, provides for the deepening of knowledge relating to the phytochemical and pharmacological characteristics of medicinal plants and products of natural origin. Supplementary notions will be provided regarding the pathology and the possible interactions between the same products of natural origin, drugs and foods.
The topics covered in the course are linked to various professional and productive sectors. Among these are the health professions (pharmacist, doctor-surgeon, nutritional biologist, biotechnologist), the professional figures who in various capacities work in pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of food supplements, as well as in the normative-regulatory, information and dissemination field of knowledge in the field of phytotherapy and products of natural origin.
Who is it for?
The course is intended for graduates in Herbal Sciences and Technologies, Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, Medicine and Surgery, Biological Sciences, Biotechnology, Nutrition and Food and other degree classes pertaining to the health professions.
Method of carrying out
The advanced course will take place on Friday and Saturday, lessons will begin on January 17th and end on March 15th 2025. The training course is divided into 88 hours of distance learning (with online teaching materials made available to the students) and a final test. A total of: 11 CFU and 50 ECM will be recognized for all the teaching activities.
Teachers
The lessons are held by professors from the University of Milan and other Italian universities, as well as by professionals who work in companies in the sector of production of food supplements and health products of plant origin.
Organizational secretariat and contacts
Dott. Marco Angarano
Dipartimento di Scienze Farmacologiche e Biomolecolari “Rodolfo Paoletti” – Via Balzaretti, 9 – 20133 Milano
Email: CDP.farmacognosia@unimi.it – Tel. 02 50318408
Topics covered
- Medicinal, medicinal and aromatic plants as ingredients of health products, characteristics of drugs, areas of use.
- Secondary metabolism in medicinal plants: roles and interactions with the environment.
- The cultivation of medicinal plants. – Phytocomplex and variability factors of herbal drugs.
- Extraction techniques and preparations obtainable from medicinal plants and vegetable drugs. Standardization and titration of extracts.
- Phytochemistry – Chemical constituents of herbal drugs.
- Quality controls of herbal drugs.
- Identification of plant substances with DNA barcoding.
- Formulation of herbal products and plant-based medicines.
- Safe use of products of natural origin; drug and food interactions; phytovigilance. –
- Regulations and legislation of the herbal sector.
- Ethnopharmacology
- Traditional medicines: Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
- Essential oils and aromatherapy.
- Medicinal plants for the central nervous system: stimulating tonics.
- Medicinal plants for the CNS: antidepressants and sleep inducers.
- Medicinal plants for the CNS: brain aging and neurodegeneration.
- Adaptogenic and immunomodulatory herbs.
- Antiviral and antibacterial herbs.
- Medicinal plants for the cardiovascular system and disorders of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism.
- Medicinal plants for pain and inflammation.
- Medicinal plants for the respiratory system.
- Medicinal plants for the urinary system and reproductive system.
- Medicinal plants for the gastrointestinal system and the hepato-biliary system.
- Medicinal plants for the skin.
- Medicinal plants in the pediatric age group.
- Medicinal plants for the elderly.
- Natural products in gynecology, pregnancy and breastfeeding.
- Medicinal plants in veterinary medicine.
- Natural products for athletes.
- Generalities of the intestinal microbiota, probiotics and prebiotics.
- Discussion forum on company experiences.
