In last few decades, there is increasing acceptance and awareness of herbal drugs all over the world. Pharmacognosy is probably the oldest of the modern sciences that involves the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties of natural drugs, including the search for new drugs from natural sources. Pharmacognosy is deals with medicinal potential of natural sources focusing herbal drugs, their extraction, standardization and quality control studies. This branch is credited for supplying highest number of lead molecules to address various human diseases. It gives a thorough study about the isolation of phytoconstituents, herbal formulation & development and evaluation aspects. The rigorous research training and excellent teaching offered at this centre enable the phytotherapists of tomorrow with great scientific expertise.
In the Department of Pharmacognosy, we carried out experiments on basic concept of morphology, microscopy and physicochemical characteristics of herbal drugs. Department of Pharmacognosy is fully dedicated to provide excellence in education and research through natural products chemistry by exploring the local natural resources as remedies for management of endemic diseases. Laboratory also engaged in extraction, isolation, herbal formulation development, evaluation, and standardization of herbal drugs and Phytopharmaceuticals. The strength of the department lies in its modern labs, sophisticated instruments and high quality research output.
Academic credibility of the department of Pharmacognosy is envisaged by its changing curriculum to meet the current requirements of pharmaceutical Industry. The department offers extensive training in all aspects of natural products including latest developments in the scientific field. Herbal product development, drug discovery and development from natural products, development of nutraceuticals, dietary supplements and cosmeceuticals, herbal IPR and herbal drugs patenting are the focused key areas of the department.
Scope
The department of Pharmacognosy caters to the modern needs of Industry by providing conducive ambience for learning and develop skills to be fit the industrial and academic demands. It includes the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties of drugs, drug substances, or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well as the search for new drugs from natural sources. The growing needs for herbal drugs standardization and analysis in the pharmaceuctical, herbal/ayurvedic, nutraceutical and cosmeceutical industries has paved the way for the requirement of well trained personnel. Our department has been continuously providing skilled hands to industry and academic demands. Today pharmacognosy is basically a branch of chemistry, but its historical roots are in pharmacy, and academics considering they to be involved in pharmacognosy are almost exclusively at schools of pharmacy. Today molecular biological techniques especially DNA fingerprints (RAPD, RFLP, AFLP) are also used to identify and authenticate the herbs. Even there are some US patents were issued for identifying the herbs using DNA fingeprints.
The department of Pharmacognosy is designed to mainly core competence of the following areas
- Herbal drug standardization
- Development of Nano-herbal formulation
- Medicinal Plant Tissue Culture
- Evaluation of traditional herbal formulation
- Isolation and purification of phytoconstituents
- Development of nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals
- Biological screening of herbs/herbal/ traditional product
Career Opportunities
Opportunities for the candidates with this degree are wide-ranging, from faculty position in Pharmacy institutions to production executive and Research scientist in herbal drug companies.
The other familiar opportunities are, analyst in companies, Govt. regulatory agencies such as the Food & Drug Administration, Govt. Drug testing Laboratories. Regulatory department in herbal drug companies, Research associate in R&D centers and Research organizations like CDRI, NBRI, RRL, AYUSH, IISC etc.
Herbal garden
Department is having a major priority of planting trees in surrounding area of the college. In front of Dept. more than 100 rare plant species.
Annually an exhibition is organized for students to understand the fundamental alertness to identify plants, classification of plant species, its medicinal uses and conventional methods to utilize plants.
Frequently the department organizes medicinal garden visiting at well-known places.
