The Division of Pharmacognosy is dedicated to pharmaceutical research focusing on natural products from all kingdoms of nature (e.g., plants, microbes, fungi, lichens). Our primary tasks include discovering, isolating, and characterizing new biologically active compounds to better understand their molecular mechanisms and interactions within complex cellular systems.
Our goals include identifying novel drug leads and targets, improving the quality of herbal medicinal products, and sustainably producing natural compounds through biotechnological approaches.
Patrik Schwarz's application "Targeting Chronic Inflammatory Skin Diseases with Natural Products" for the Postdoctoral Researcher Seed Grant programme has been approved after review by the the Dean's Team. Congratualtions!
Department Meeting
08.10.2026 - 28.01.2027
As part as the 74th International Congress of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research (GA), Johannes Gafriller was awarded the Discovery Award 2026 in recognition of the outstanding oral research presentation “Enterococci under pressure: Can Morus alba break the resistance?” during the Early Career Researcher Workshop, held on August 30. 2026, in Reims, France. Congratulations!
On August 27, 2026, a delegation of the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine visited the Division of Pharmacognosy. Left: Professor Bo HAN, Dean of School of Pharmacy; Right: Professor Cheng PENG, Director of the State Key Laboratory of Southwestern Chinese Medicine Resources.
On July 14th, Verena Dirsch gave a lecture for children between seven and twelve years old. Exciting questions about how nature can help us to find...
Verena Dirsch (bottom right) and Judith Rollinger (3rd from left, back row) with an interested group from our division at the Scientific HMPPA Symposium "Next Generation in Pharmacognosy," held at the Maria Waldrast Nature Resort (Matrei am Brenner), 29 June – 1 July 2026.
