The Department of Pharmacognosy at the University of Szeged is one of the main Hungarian centres for research and higher education in pharmacognosy. Its main tasks are university teaching of botany, pharmacognosy and phytotherapy, primarily to pharmacy students and to conduct scientific research in the field of pharmacognosy. The Department also conducts educational activity in other academic specializations relating to higher health-care education and, takes part in the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and in the specialized and further education of pharmacists.

Pharmacognosy is one of the basic disciplines of pharmaceutical science. The term pharmacognosy originates from the Greek words pharmakon (medicine) and gig nosco (I recognize). This multidisciplinary scientific field investigates materials of biological origin (herbal, animal or microbiologically fermented) which are used for health care and healing purposes. It involves biological (morphology, anatomy, etc.), chemical (phytochemistry and phytoanalytics) and therapeutic (ethnopharmacology and phytomedicine) knowledge concerning herbal, animal and microbiological drugs and their constituents.

The University of Szeged maintains regional relations with other universities and research institutes in Hungary and the surrounding countries. It also collaborates in effective international cooperation with universities from other European countries and is striving to extend its international relations still further. The members of the Department participate actively in the national and international scientific life and make an appreciable positive contribution to the development of pharmacognosy and related scientific areas.