Drug Discovery

The painting of Dr. Thelma A. Rivera, a retired faculty of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, is a depiction of pharmacy as a science and as an art. Niyogniyogan and chichirica flowering plants with the chemical formula of vinblastine or vincristine (the anticancer drugs isolated from chichirica) occupy the right half of the painting while mortar and pestle, watch glasses with powdered leaves, medicine bottles on top of lagundi leaves and tablets beside an akapulko leaf are on the left half. At the center is the Bowl of Hygieia with a snake, the symbol of Pharmacy.