Development of a pharmacy undergraduate laboratory class which combines compounding, natural products, and analytical chemistry

A new three-hour laboratory class was developed integrating concepts of compounding, natural products and analytical chemistry. Students performed thin layer chromatography to detect the active constituent of tea tree oil (1,8-cineole; eucalyptol), and then compounded zinc paste, incorporating tea tree oil. The laboratory class was implemented into a discipline-specific unit, Physical Pharmaceutics and Formulation A, and completed by a cohort of 187 first year pharmacy students in October 2018. This new integrated model for the laboratory resulted in higher student satisfaction scores for the laboratory classes; measured on a Likert scale (from 1 to 5), with a mean score of 4.12 in 2017 which increased to 4.50 in 2018. Overall student satisfaction of the unit also increased from a mean score of 4.08 to 4.32. This laboratory class forms the first activity Sydney Pharmacy Schools suite of indigenous plant laboratory activities in the development of its complementary medicines curricula.