Aims
For centuries, we have drawn on the natural world’s chemistry cabinet of health-promoting flora, fauna, and fungi to improve the wellbeing of our population and to alleviate and cure our health problems. This process continues today with modern medicine and complementary therapies developing new treatments and using and re-visiting traditional remedies. This programme focuses on the development cycle for medicinal plants and functional foods, from identifying the plants in the field, to isolating the bioactive components in the lab and developing new medicines and nutritional foods. The programme draws on expertise from the Schools of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Biology, Chemistry, Historical Studies and Law and the Faculty of Medical Sciences to provide a unique, interdisciplinary approach to this major subject area.
Programme Description
You take compulsory modules (90 credits) in: plants as food; introductory quantitative techniques; production of herbal medicines and functional foods; traditional use of plants, including ethno-pharmacology; functional foods in nutrition and health; and drug metabolism and toxicology. You choose optional modules (30 credits) from a list which may include: nutrition and health (10 credits); nutrition and disease (10 credits); bioethics (10 credits); medical biotechnology and enterprise (20 credits); science, climate change and environmental justice (20); environment law and environmental rights (30 credits); international intellectual property law (10 credits); and introduction to history of medicine (20 credits).
The dissertation (60 credits) should focus on an interest you have developed through the course. Depending on your choice of topic, this may include designing and undertaking a research project in collaboration with a small- or medium- sized enterprise with an interest in medicinal plants and functional foods.
For further information please go to http://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught/subjects/food/courses/534