The secondary metabolic compounds of living organisms, which characterize the species that produce them, are referred to as natural products. The wide variety of structures created by nature and associated with the bioactivity of these products, attracted the interest of
scientists from a very early age to study their chemistry and their applications. Today the knowledge in this field has spread enormously and contributes a lot to the improvement of human life. The course, aims to provide basic knowledge concerning organic compounds that
are characterized as products of both primary and secondary metabolism, to describe the methods for their isolation and characterization, to study their interaction with both the natural environment and with man and finally to investigate their possible utilization. Upon successful completion of the course, postgraduate students will be able to:

• Describe and identify the structural characteristics of each category of compounds belonging to the broader category of natural products
• Study and understand the stereochemistry of natural products that are directly related to their biological action, as well as know selected methods of isolation and analysis
• Recognize the importance of natural products in medicine, cosmetology,agriculture, and dailylife and therefore the need for their production on a large scale which makes it necessary to have a good knowledge of their chemistry and application
• Gaining knowledge about how and why plants produce such a wide range of metabolites gives us new ideas on how plants use these compounds to prevent predators and pathogens, attract and prevent pollinators, inhibit other plants by competing with themselves for their own resources, and defend themselves from environmental stress