The Department of Pharmacognosy, formerly known as the Department of Chinese Herbal Medicine, was established in 1972. And currently, the director of the Department is Professor Ding Zhao. The teaching and research section is mainly responsible for the "Pharmacognosy", "Introduction to Pharmacy", "Medicinal Botany", "Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine", "Chinese Medicine" and "Introduction to Medicine and Pharmacognosy", "Analysis of Crude Drug" and other courses, of which "Pharmacognosy" is a provincial-level excellent course in Hebei Province and a provincial-level offline first-class undergraduate course. There are 8 full-time teachers in the department, including 2 full-time professors, 1 associate professor, and 5 lecturers, all with doctoral degrees. Among them, 1 doctoral supervisor and 2 master supervisors. 

The main research areas of the department are:

1. Research on the pharmacological activity and molecular mechanism of Chinese medicine and natural products;

2. Design and synthesis of natural medicine chemistry and anti-tumor drugs, and research on biological targets and mechanisms of action;

3. Research on the interaction between active ingredients of crude drugs and functional proteins;

4. Research on new methods of crude drug identification;

5. Research on quality standards of traditional Chinese medicine；

6. Develop new health products from medicinal and food plants. 

Features and advantages:

Utilizing the characteristics and advantages of traditional Chinese medicine and natural medicine in the treatment of tumors, diabetes, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, inflammation and other major diseases, using chemical biology, pharmacology, molecular biology and other methods, combined with crude drug analysis and drugs based on the structure of natural products design and synthesis and other research contents, excavate and search for active substances for the treatment of the above-mentioned diseases, discover new biological targets, and clarify the mechanism of action.

In recent years, we have published more than 200 research papers at the national level and SCI indexed; won the three third prizes of Hebei Province Science and Technology Progress Award, the second and third prize of Hebei Provincial Health Department Science and Technology Progress Award, the third prize of Hebei Province Education Commission Science and Technology Progress Award, and the school level Many outstanding teaching achievement awards. Professor Ding Zhao won the Chinese Pharmacological Society-Servier Young Pharmacologist Award. Undertook major national science and technology projects during the Tenth Five-Year Plan, national education projects, Hebei Provincial Natural Science Foundation, and key basic research projects of Hebei Provincial Department of Science and Technology, and trained dozens of postgraduates. We undertook the drafting and formulation of local standards for Chinese herbal medicines in Hebei Province. Participated in the compilation of the fourth round of planning textbook "Pharmacy of Pharmacognosy" and the second round of experimental bilingual textbook "Experimental Guidance of Pharmacognosy" for national higher medical colleges and universities. We were as editor-in-chief of "Modern Traditional Chinese Medicine with Wonderful Remedies" (upper and lower), participated in the editing of "Clinical Oncology of Chinese and Western Medicine (Chinese Herbal Medicine)", "Breast Cancer Comprehensive Treatment (Chinese Herbal Medicine)" and other works.

Over the years, we have adhered to the construction of field practice and practice bases for medicinal botany, continuously explored theoretical and practical experimental teaching, carried out teaching reforms in accordance with social development and needs, and undertook more than ten national, provincial and school-level innovation projects for college students, and awarded. It has benefited dozens of students, and won the first national pharmacy/traditional Chinese pharmacy college student innovation and entrepreneurship and experimental teaching reform competition special prize, provincial and school-level college student innovation and entrepreneurship and other competitions.

Overview of Teaching & Research Group

The Medical Chemistry Teaching and Research Group (MCT&RG) was established in 1979. At the beginning of its establishment, there were five teachers and two experimenters. Yansen Sun, director of the Biochemistry Teaching and Research Group, concurrently served as the Director of Medical Chemistry Teaching and Research Group. In 1985, Zhibin Guo served as the director, with eighteen teachers and six experimenters. Since 1990, the reorganized medical chemistry teaching and research Group have made remarkable progress. After the Director Zhibin Guo retired in 1992, Sunzhun Wang was appointed as the director of this Group. At that time, this Group has one professor, five associate professors, six lecturers, and two assistants. During the time of merging the institutions in 1995, the current MCT&RG was constituted by the merger of the original Hebei Medical College and the original Shijiazhuang Medical College. At that time, there were twenty staffs in the teaching and research Group, including four associate professors, twelve lecturers, and four experimenters. In 2002, the MCT&RG was reorganized again. Professor Xueping Ji was the director of the Department and Professor Meiying Zhu was the deputy director. So far, the Teaching and Research Group has seventeen staffs, including three professors (Xueping Ji, Meiying Zhu and Zhihong Ma), eleven associate professors (Xinglian Liu, Lingxia sun, Xiaohong Liu, Chunxia Zhang, Chunxia Wang, Lirui Zhao, Ruixing Ni, Huiling Chen, xianrui Li, Na Wang, Yuheng Liu), and three lecturers (Bing Wang, Lin Wang and Kai Kang). Among them, Professor Xueping Ji is a doctoral supervisor.

In terms of teaching

The Medical Chemistry Teaching and Research Group undertakes medical chemistry courses for undergraduate majors in Clinical medicine, Forensic medicine, Anesthesia, Imaging, Medical laboratory, Oral medicine and Preventive medicine, etc., including "Basic Chemistry", "Medical Organic Chemistry" and "Medical Chemistry Experiment".

"Basic Chemistry" course is taught for 42 class hours, including chemical principles (preliminary chemical thermodynamics, laws of thermodynamics, degree of chemical reaction and chemical equilibrium, chemical reaction rate, colloidal chemistry), structural chemistry (atomic structure and periodic law of elements, chemical bond and molecular structure), chemical balance in solution (acid-base balance in solution, precipitation and dissolution balance in solution, coordination compound and coordination balance, redox reaction and electrochemistry), element chemistry, analytical chemistry, etc.

"Medical Organic Chemistry" is also an important basic course for medical colleges and universities, with teaching 42 class hours. This course gives a detailed introduction of organic compounds to the classification, structure, naming, physical properties, chemical properties, reaction mechanism and medical applications. In terms of stereoisomers, the production and expression methods of configuration heterogeneous and conformational isomerism of organic compounds are introduced, to enable students to understand the mechanism of chiral drugs and biological enzyme catalysis. In addition, the introduction of the structure and properties of bioactive molecules such as lipids, sugars, amino acids, proteins and nucleic acids, students can not only master the molecular structure, chemical properties and basic theories of these active organic compounds, but also can establish the connection between organic chemistry and medicine, pharmacy, which can lay a solid foundation for subsequent courses.

"Medical Chemistry Experiment" needs to teach 40 class hours. Through experimental teaching, students can systematically master basic experimental skills, and lay a good foundation for subsequent courses (biochemistry, pharmacology, etc.), and future medical work.

In terms of scientific research

The main research direction of our department is nanomaterial synthesis and performance research, drug electrochemical biosensor, food hygiene analysis new technology and new method research, and metal organic chemistry, etc. The Group undertakes a number of scientific research projects such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, the Hebei Provincial Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Education, and the Department of Personnel, and participates in one international cooperation project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and won the second and third prizes of Hebei Science and Technology Award, applied for two patents, and published more than fifty SCI papers, including three Top Papers in District 1 and one Highly Cited ESI Paper. In addition, the MCT&RS also undertakes a number of teaching research topics, such as provincial and school-level teaching topics and college students' innovative experimental projects. The member of MCT&RS participated in the compilation of "Basic Chemistry" (Associate Editor, National Health Commission's "13th Five-Year Plan" textbook) and "Modern Medical Experimental Technology" and other unified textbooks.