Associate Professor Dimirina Zheleva-Dimitrova, PhD has graduated Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University-Sofia in 2002.

In 2003, she started as a PhD student at the Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, since 2006- Assist. Prof., and since 2018 she is Associate Professor in the same department.

Her PhD thesis is on scientific specialty „Pharmacognosy and phytochemistry” entitled “Phenolic compounds in species from genus Hypericum L. (Guttiferae)”.

Assoc. Prof. Dimitrina Zheleva has specializations in “Medicinal plants and Natural Products” and “Toxicology and toxicological analysis”, and second master degree “Public Health and Health Management”, obtained from MU-Sofia.

Currently, she is associate professor at the Department of Pharmacognosy.

She participates in the teaching program “Pharmaceutical botany” in Bulgarian and English languages, scientific supervisor of students.

Her scientific research competence is in the field of the following directions of the pharmaceutical science and practice: phytochemistry, metabolomics, HPLC, mass spectrometry, chemophenetics, screening methods for the determination of antioxidant and enzyme inhibitory activity, phytopharmacology.

She is an author of 80 scientific publications, 1 textbook, more than 500 citations in indexed journals in Scopus of Elsevier.

She is an expert in the field of medicinal plants, phytochemistry, chromatography, metabolic profiling, phytopharmacology, nutrition and dietetics, healthy nutrition and sports.

She is scientific supervisor of 5 and participates in 30 scientific projects funded by Medical Science Council, MU-Sofia, and 3 projects funded by The Bulgarian National Science Fund.

Guest editor of the scientific journal Plants, MDPI.

Reviewer of scientific journals: Biochemical Systematics and Ecology, Molecules, Plants, Natural product research, Pharmacia, Foods, Phytochemistry Letters.

Member of: AMAPEC; Bulgarian Phytochemical Association; The Balkan Medical Union; Scientific Society of Pharmacy; Bulgarian Society of Nutrition and Dietetics; Bulgarian Toxicological Society; EuroTox

Participant in the Erasmus+ Program in Nancy (France) and Durban (South Africa).

She speaks English, French and Russian.

Scientific publications:

1. Zheleva-Dimitrova D, Sinan K.I, Etienne O.K, Ak G, Sharmeen J.B., Dervisoglu G, Ozdemir F.A, Mahomoodally M.F. Comprehensive chemical characterization and biological evaluation of two Acacia species: nilotica and A. ataxacantha. Food and Chemical Toxicology; 2021; 156, Article number 112446. ISSN 0278-6915.
2. Zheleva-Dimitrova D, Zengin G, Sinan K. I, Yıldıztugay E, Mahomoodally M. F, Ak G, Picot-Allain M. C. N, Gevrenova R. Identification of bioactive compounds from Rhaponticoides iconiensis extracts and their bioactivities: An endemic plant to Turkey flora. J Pharm Biomed Anal; 2020; 190: 113537. IF(2019) 3.209
3. Zheleva-Dimitrova D, Sinanb K. I, Etienne O. K, Zengin G, Gevrenova R, Mahomoodally M. F, Lobine D, Mollica A. Chemical composition and biological properties of Synedrella nodiflora (L.) Gaertn: A comparative investigation of different extraction methods. Process Biochemistry; 2020, 96, 202–212. IF(2019)2.952
4. Zheleva-Dimitrova D, Simeonova R, Vitcheva V, Balabanova V, Savov I, Yagi S, Gevrenova R. In vivo toxicity assessment of Clinopodium vulgare water extract characterized by UHPLC-HRMS. Food Chem Toxicol. 2019; 134:110841.
5. Zheleva-Dimitrova D, Zengin G, Balabanova V, Voynikov Y, Lozanov V, Lazarova I, Gevrenova R. Chemical characterization with in vitro biological activities of Gypsophila species, Journal of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis; 2018, 155, 56-69.

Scientific projects:

1. Grant № Д-102/2021; Medical Science Council, MU-Sofia. Chemophenetic aspects in the Senecioneae tribe (Asteraceae): combination of morphometric and phytochemical analyzes in searching of specialized natural products. Scientific supervisor: Assoc. Prof. D. Zheleva-Dimitrova.
2. Grant № Д-119/2020. Medical Science Council, MU-Sofia. Integrated strategy for the identification of secondary metabolites based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high performance mass spectrometry. Application in Rhaponticoides iconiensis (Hub.-Mor.) M.V.Agab. & Greuter (Asteraceae). Scientific supervisor: Assoc. Prof. D. Zheleva-Dimitrova .
3. Grant № Д-222/2018. Medical Science Council, MU-Sofia. Stimulation of research in areas with high achievements – 2018. Phytopharmacological potential of Asteraceae plants evaluated by chemical and biological profilings. Scientific supervisor: Assoc. Prof. R. Gevrenova.
4. Grant № Д-87/2017. Medical Science Council, MU-Sofia. Analysis of sesquiterpene lactones in arnica of different origins by gas chromatography- coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry. Scientific supervisor: Assist. Prof. D. Zheleva-Dimitrova.
5. Grant № Д-40/2016. Medical Science Council, MU-Sofia. Multifactor analysis of extraction combined with liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric determination of bioactive substances in Portulaca oleracea (purslane). Scientific supervisor: Assist. Prof. D. Zheleva-Dimitrova.