Chemistry of Natural Products   (411B2)

Academic year:

2024/2025.

Attendance requirements:

201B2

ECTS:

12

Study level:

Study program:

Teacher:

Zoran M. Vujčić, Ph.D.
full professor, Faculty of Chemistry, Studentski trg 12-16, Beograd

Assistants:

—

Hours of instruction:

Weekly: four hours of lectures + seven hours of labwork (4+0+7)

Goals:

The goal of this course is to teach students the basic principles of isolation, purification, identification, characterization and structural analysis of the most important groups of natural products. Within this course, students will also learn about the basic roles each of these compounds has in the organisms which produce them. The second goal of this course is to help students acquire experimental skills necessary for the isolation and purification of some natural products and to teach them to characterize the obtained substances.

Outcome:

At the end of this course students will have the basic theoretical and experimental skills necessary for the isolation, purification, identification, characterization and structural analysis of the most important groups of natural products. Students will be familiar with the role each of these compounds has in the organisms which produce them.

Teaching methods:

Lectures, experimental exercises, theory/calculation exercises and a tutorial.

Extracurricular activities:

Apart from learning the theory taught in the lectures, students have to prepare for 5 entrance tests, to collect and analyze the literature following the teacher’s instructions, to write a tutorial in the field of chemistry of natural products and to prepare its public defense.

Coursebooks:

Main coursebooks:

1. Stephen P. Stanforth: Natural Product Chemistry at a Glance, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2006.
2. Satyajit D. Sarker. Lutfun Nahar: Chemistry for Pharmacy Students, General, Organic and Natural Product Chemistry, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2007. (p. 283-370)
3. Raphael Ikan (Ed): Selected Topics in the Chemistry of Natural Products, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd, 2008.

Supplementary coursebooks:

• All available literature which deals with the areas included in the syllabus, including original scientific literature.

Additional material:

http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/sectionF/

Lectures:

0 points (4 hours a week)

Syllabus:

• Saccharides. Basic information about monosaccharides, their properties, production and application. Oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. Isolation, purification and analytics of saccharides. Basic information about some groups of polysaccharides: plant polysaccharides, animal polysaccharides, microbial polysaccharides. Basic information about the physiological functioning of the most important groups of saccharides.
• Lipids. Basic information on neutral fats, glycolipids, sphingolipids, their properties, production and application. Basic information on waxes, prostaglandins, their properties, production and application. Basic information about various classes of steroids, their properties, production and application. Basic information about terpenoids, their properties, production and application. Fundamentals of the structure of the cell membrane.
• Alkaloids. Basic information about some classes of alkaloids, their properties and production. Basic information about the physiological action of some classes of alkaloids on higher organisms. Basic information about some other natural products, their properties, production and application, including: vitamins, plant pigments, antibiotics, depsides, lignins, tannins.

Labwork:

0 points (7 hours a week)

Syllabus:

The syllabus of laboratory classes includes 5 sessions (20 working hours each) within 5 areas:

1. Lipids (triglycerides, steroids, lecithins);
2. Carbohydrates (monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides);
3. Amino acids, polypeptides;
4. Terpenoids;
5. Alkaloids, vitamins, antibiotics.

Laboratory classes are in the weeks following the corresponding benchmark tests. Experimental work with students within each of these areas includes practicing experimental skills in isolating, purifying and characterizing one (typical) substance from a group of several preparations which students can perform. Experimental work also includes learning the principles of the laboratory techniques which can be used to isolate, purify and characterize some of these products.

Colloquia:

10 points

Written exam:

30 points

Oral exam:

40 points

Tutorial:

20 points