Rs 3.5 crore project in Jaypee varsity’s kitty

Ambika Sharma

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Solan, December 6

Scientists at the Jaypee University of Information Technology (JUIT), Waknaghat, have bagged a prestigious project worth Rs 3.5 crore from the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology.

Under the project, they will have to preserve the genetic stock of medicinal herbs used in treating various ailments such as cirrhosis, diabetes and cancer.

Prof RS Chauhan, Dean, biotechnology, JUIT, who was instrumental in bagging the project, said the high value medicinal herbs in the state were not only a major resource base for the traditional medicine and herbal industry but also provided livelihood and health security to a large segment of the Indian population.

“The categorisation of some of the medicinal herbs as endangered by the Government of India has imposed legal restrictions on the collection of their raw material. This has caused economic constraints on the local communities and has also created a shortage of raw material for the pharmaceutical and herbal drug industries. This shortage has given a boost to the illegal procurement and adulteration of raw material of medicinal plants, thus adversely hitting the quality of herbal drugs.”

The project aims at preserving the genetic purity of quality plant material of such herbs. The scientists will explore whether superior strains of medicinal herbs containing higher amounts of chemical constituents exist in the natural habitats and once available they can be conserved at suitable locations as genetic stocks.

The project is expected to provide avenues for developing DNA markers for ensuring genetic purity of particular strains and undertake their further improvement. As of today, no such systematic genetic improvement programme is running at the national level so that authentic raw material of high value medicinal plants can be made available to farmers for commercial cultivation.

This will also negate the possibility of adulteration as the raw material can be tested for its authenticity and more importantly will provide an assured supply to the herbal and phyto-pharmaceutical industries.

The medicinal plants given high priority are Picrorhiza kurroa, Swertia chirayita, Aconitum heterophyllum and Podophyllum hexandrum as these are used in the preparation of herbal drugs for the treatment of major diseases such as diabetes, liver cirrhosis and cancer.

“The project has given a major impetus to research and development of medicinal plants, besides providing an intellectual platform for students. We aim to translate this biological wealth into bio-economy through our strength of multi-disciplinary education and research at Jaypee university,” said Chauhan.

The domestic trade of herbal drug industry is of the order of Rs 8,000 to Rs 9,000 crore, out of which about Rs 1,000 crore is accounted for exports. The demand for medicinal plant-based raw materials is growing at the rate of 15 to 25 per cent annually but the Indian share in the world trade is quite low due to quality issues.