Overview

There is a growing trend for acquiring even a fractionate knowledge about medicinal plants for identifying and selecting these plants for the treatment of specific diseases. In the recent years, the interest in medicinal plants has increased and even the citizenry from the waste have also taken this matter seriously by conducting researches on plant based medicines. Thus, The Faculty of Graduate Studies launched the Master's program in Medicinal Plants Sciences in collaboration with the University of Lisbon in Portugal in the academic year 2019/2020.

The academic vision of the university is to develop new academic programs, especially in the field of graduate studies. Thus, the Master of Medicinal Plants Sciences (M.Sc.) was launched. The introduction of a master program in Medicinal Plants Sciences (M.Sc.) will provide graduates of the Faculty of Pharmacy and other undergraduates the opportunity to pursue graduate studies and this will develop the professions in the province in particular and the country in general in this field, specially there is no master program or qualified expertise in this area (Medicinal Plants).

This program will link the academic programs with research to participate in development of the province by providing the community with qualified graduates in medicinal plants. The main objective of the program is to maintain the internal and external competencies of the pharmaceutical education system and to harmonize the outputs of pharmaceutical education with the needs of the market and the country.

This program will be a pioneer program and will contribute in the promotion support of creativity at Hebron University (Pharmacy & Agriculture) and the development of the pharmacy profession in this area. This program is different from the programs at Palestinian universities and no Palestinian university has Master of Medicinal Plants Sciences (M.Sc.) program. It deals with morphology, the therapeutic properties of medicinal plants, herbal plantation, medicinal plants resource management, quality control and standardization of herbal drugs, extraction and marketing of medicinal plants.

Taking also into consideration the rapid increase of worldwide interest and demand for the plant based drugs in the last few decades (due to their high efficacy, less side effects & low cost) leading to large scale commercial production of both classical and proprietary herbal formulations in the country; it should introduce several courses covering different aspects of Ayurveda and allied traditional systems of medicine.

The study plan of the program is a new plan that covers all the ongoing and modern and the main aim of the program is to prepare the graduates as specialist resource persons with regard to natural products of pharmaceutical, medical and commercial importance. They will be able to employ their skills and knowledge in various areas related to natural products.

Palestine is a rich treasure of medicinal plants and can become one of the main sources for supply of herbal drugs, but lack of or inadequate quality standards of raw material has been one of the major impediments in wider acceptance of herbal drugs.

Various international agencies like World Health Organization have been emphasizing on the importance and need of standardization of herbal raw material. Skilled technical man powers possessing the knowledge on all aspects of medicinal plants are needed for this. Sensing its urgency, an effort is put forth to establish M.Sc. Degree in Medicinal Plants Sciences. The major areas in this course involve cultivation and collection of medicinal plants, processing, herbal medicine drug discovery and development, toxicology, drug manufacture quality control and research. Therefore, The successful candidate will be a specialist in natural products of Pharmaceutical, medical and commercial importance, who has acquired sound Pharmacy knowledge and working skills through supervised training in Pharmacy and its sub-specialties.

This program is collaborated program with the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. Highly qualified academics from the Lisbon University will participate in the program. Either by teaching courses or/and as supervisors of Master's Thesis. The E- learning and B-learning will be part of the collaboration. The student also will spend a period of time at the University of Lisbon in Portugal for courses and research too. In addition the exchange of the faculty members is part of this collaborated program.

The program will include 36 credit hours divided into four semesters for full-time students. The program contains 6 credit hours as research thesis as a required of graduation.

Academics from the Faculty of Pharmacy & Medical Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, and new academics will be recruited according to the requirements of the program will participate in this program. In addition, as mentioned previously teaching staff from Lisbon University will participate in teaching and supervising student research, as this program is a collaborated program between the two universities.

The Faculty of Pharmacy& Medical sciences and the Faculty of Agriculture- Hebron University will put all the necessary effort to ensure leadership and excellence in the educational process, in the fields of scientific research and community service, in order to preserve its status as a leading university in the province and at the national level.

The Master's Degree of Medicinal Plants Science gives qualified students to work as an expert in this field. The Master's degree provides the student with a deep knowledge in the field of medicinal plants, research skills, and experience in various topics of this field, that are essential of development of his profession. The students can use their research skills in these fields in research as well as teaching. The program will also give the graduates to join a Ph.D. program in the fields of medicinal plants, working in teaching, working as research scientists in the pharmaceutical industry, and leadership in governmental or non-governmental organizations or in various health-care institutions.

This program as mentioned is a collaborated program between our university and Lisbon University, this collaboration will promotes and develops the academic exchange and research experiences and promotes scientific research and provides the necessary elements for scientific research, especially by taking the advantage of the facilities in Portuguese universities.

Similar programs are implemented in many European, American and Asian universities. Therefore, it is necessary for us in Palestine to establish such advanced program. Especially the international companies have moved from the manufacturing the traditional medicines to the natural drugs for treatment of most chronic diseases due to their high efficacy, less side effects & low costs as mentioned. However, this program will address the developments in this area and will give the graduate the necessary knowledge of natural drugs obtained from medicinal plants. This program will enhance the role of the university in the development of the society, especially in the health professions that are constantly developing and using medicinal plants for treatment of different diseases. This program will also enhance the cooperation between the university, the Pharmaceutical association, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, because the return of this program will be positive for everyone.

This graduate program will be a continuation of the future vision of the University in pioneering postgraduate education and research in Palestine because the overall goal of the proposed program is to systematically and scientifically approach the herbal and medicinal plants spread in Palestine and will try to, among other things, create a body of knowledge in its regard in a fashion that is scientifically and economically feasible. Moreover, this will contribute to enhance the Palestinian research and economy through taking advantage of readily-present resources that are considered an integral, yet largely untapped, part of the Palestinian culture.