A Teaching Reform Pathway for Natural Medicinal Chemistry Based on Drug-Discovery Case Chains

Abstract

Natural Medicinal Chemistry is a core undergraduate course for pharmaceutical engineering majors, connecting the fundamental chemistry of natural products with the practice of modern drug discovery. Conventional teaching is often structured around compound classes and research methods. Although this structure helps maintain disciplinary coherence, it may also leave knowledge points disconnected, reduce classic discovery cases to supplementary examples, and make it difficult for students to grasp the full process of natural product drug discovery. To address these issues, this study proposes a teaching reform pathway driven by drug-discovery case chains. By using representative cases as teaching carriers, the pathway links resource clues, structural features, physicochemical properties, extraction and separation strategies, bioactivity evidence, and development-oriented applications. These elements are further transformed into classroom questions and learning tasks, guiding students to understand the process from natural product discovery to drug development. Digital tools are incorporated to support case analysis and help students visualize structures, retrieve information, and organize evidence. Through pre-class preparation, guided in-class analysis, post-class learning outputs, and formative assessment, the design helps students move beyond memorizing isolated knowledge points toward process-oriented understanding and application-oriented analysis. The proposed approach offers a practical reference for content reconstruction and teaching implementation in related pharmacy courses.

Keywords: Natural Medicinal Chemistry; drug-discovery case chains; natural products; formative assessment

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/17-6-02

Publication date: June 30^th 2026