Department of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry

Department of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry

Research:

The Pharmacognosy & Phytochemistry department has expertise in end to end product development of herbal materials, right from development & optimization of strategies for extraction & bioactivity - guided fractionation, development & validation of suitable chromatographic methods and metabolomic studies to complete analysis of herbal products. Suitable bioactivity profiling of extracts is routinely performed in the research lab, with leveraging conventional & novel drug delivery platforms for development of finished herbal formulations with maximized bioavailability & efficacy.

Human Resource Development :

Students trained in the department are equipped with the requisite skill sets and are well placed in the R&D, regulatory affairs, medical writing & clinical studies departments of the industry.

Industry-Academia Linkage:

Actively support the industry by way of consultancies, sponsored research projects, with a basic thrust on carrying out translational research.

Area of Experties

• Standardization of crude drugs and herbal extracts
• Bio-activity guided fractionation of herbal extracts
• Evaluation of therapeutic potential of crude drugs and their various extracts
• Study of different parameters of extraction of herbal drugs and optimization
• Isolation and characterization of phytoconstituents from herbal extracts
• Evidence based bioactivity evaluation of herbs, Ayurvedic formulations & nutraceuticals
• Solubility manipulations of drugs of natural origin by various techniques
• Development of conventional formulations and Novel Drug Delivery Systems of herbal extracts & Nutraceuticals
• Analytical method development and validation for crude drugs, herbal extracts and herbal formulations by HPLC, HPTLC and other chromatographic techniques
• Stability studies and shelf life study of herbal & Nutraceutical formulations
• Development and evaluation of Ayurvedic formulations, Nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals

The Department has received funding for its research projects from various government funding agencies including DBT, BARC - BRNS, AICTE, CSIR, UGC and University of Mumbai

In addition, the department has successfully completed projects sponsored by industry including German Remedies, Marico, Zandu pharmaceutical works, Charak Pharma, Anazeal analyticals and Omniactive Health Technologies. The department has also been engaged in guiding B Tech & MD students of Ayurved faculty regarding the formulations. Many such funded projects also have been completed.

The Department has developed a lush, well maintained medicinal plant garden with almost 60 QR - coded herbs of medicinal value. The adjunct literature of the planted medicinal herbs of the garden and Pharmacognosy museum has also been maintained and updated by the department.