The department of Pharmacognosy is one of the oldest departments established along with the institute. Currently, the department offers programs including D.Pharm and B.Pharm and from 2023 onwards the M.Pharm in Pharmacognosy program will be launched. The department currently offers Ph.D program. The department offers various courses such as pharmacognosy and phytochemistry, herbal drug technology, quality control standardization of herbal drugs, practice school in herbal medicine and many others.
Currently, the department is headed by Professor (Dr.) Damiki Laloo along with other experienced faculties like Dr. Trishna Das, Dr. Rupa Sengupta and Dr. Ashis Goswami. The department infrastructure and research is financially supported by Central Government Schemes including AICTE-MODROBS, AICTE-Research promotion scheme (RPS) and DST-FIST.
The department is equipped with basic and sophisticated instruments including flash column chromatography, HPTLC, rotary microtome, digital microscope, rotary vacuum evaporator, tray dryer and various extraction apparatus. The main objective of the department is to train and motivate students in terms of achieving best practices in hands-on-skills and research in the field of natural products, developing plant monographs, standardization of herbal medicines and investigation into developing new lead and novel molecules from nature for the treatment of a variety of illness including diabetes, cancer, neurological disorders, wound healing etc.
The department also maintains the institutional Central Museum and Medicinal plant garden which comprises of more than 80 medicinal plants cultivated in nurseries (green house) and open field. Faculty in the department are highly qualified with extensive academic and research experience, and they are continuously engaged in supporting R&D for students looking to advance their careers in natural product sciences.
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