Corsi di studio in
Farmacia - Chimica e tecnologia farmaceutiche

Introduction: Definition of drug, active principles, primary and secondary metabolites. Pharmacopoeia: its employment in the study of medicinal plants. Primary Metabolites: lipids, carbohydrates and proteins. Their function, cytological localization and their distribution in the Plant Kingdom. Secondary Metabolites: terpenes, alkaloids, phenols. Some examples of secondary metabolites and their significance in medicinal plants that synthesize them. Plant cell: Differences between animal cell and plant cell. Vacuole: its formation in young cell, its growing in the adult cell, substances contained in vacuoles. The osmotic pressure: different behaviour of the animal cell and the plant cell in relation with the osmotic pressure. Nucleus: Chemical composition of the nucleus, protein synthesis, cell cycle. Mitosis: the difference between mitosis in animal cell and in plant cell. Natural substances that interfere with the progress of mitosis. Vegetative reproduction. Sexual reproduction. Apoptosis. Cell wall: chemical composition, formation, chemical changes over time, phragmoplast, middle lamella, primary wall, secondary wall, cell walls or substances that can be extracted from the walls of pharmaceutical interest. Plastids: characteristics and functions. Chloroplasts: the presence of chlorophyll, generality and significance of photosynthesis. Chromoplasts and their cytological location. Amyloplasts: primary starch, secondary starch (starch of reserve). Interconversion among plastids: examples, interpretation and significance of this phenomenon. Mitochondria: morphological description, functions, their presence in the living organisms, reactions occurring in mitochondria. Generality of the fermentations. Difference between respiration and fermentation. Some examples of fermentation correlated with the plant world. Cytoplasm: Golgi apparatus, plasmodesma. Differences between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell. Ontogenetic cycles of plants. Tissues: dermal (epidermis, cork, rhizoderm), mechanical (sclerenchyma), parenchyma, vascular (phloem, xylem), laticiferous. Morphological description and functions. Plant organs: roots, stems, leaves. Plant nutrition: absorption of minerals from the roots, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, transport of substances in plant. Organization of plant kingdom: brief overview on algae, fungi, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms. In vitro plant cell cultures: culture medium, sterilization, speed of growth of plant cells compared to bacterial or fungal.