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.
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.
On June 15, Patricia Haiss successfully completed her thesis “The antiproliferative activity of evodiamine in vascular smooth muscle cells: mechanistic studies” during an online defense. Congratulations on this achievement! Patricia, we wish you the best of luck and success for your upcoming endeavors!
The Green Pharmacy
Fabian Malfent gives a tour of the University of Vienna’s medicinal plant garden in the 9th district.
Available to watch on the Ö1 media library from 4. to 8. May at 8:55 (in German).
Millions of people are affected by MASLD, which represents a significant unmet medical need requiring innovative therapeutic approaches. This new project is part of the global Schwabe Phyto Innovation Challenge initiative. We are focusing on identifying natural products that target thyroid and bile acid receptors. It is a collaborative effort between the research groups of Judith Rollinger, Verena Dirsch and Johannes Kirchmair.
Elisabeth Eichenauer was awarded the Dr. Maria Schaumayer Stiftung Research Grant for her doctoral thesis entitled “Traditional Austrian Herbal Medicines for Wound Healing – Analytics and Bioactivity”. The ceremony took place on 19 March 2026 at “Club alpha” in Vienna. Congratulations!
