Workshop on Medicinal Plants & Crude Drugs held at CSIR-IIIM Jammu

Participants and Resource Persons of workshop at CSIR-IIIM Jammu which concluded on Saturday.
Participants and Resource Persons of workshop at CSIR-IIIM Jammu which concluded on Saturday.

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 25: A five days national hands-on workshop on “Taxonomic Identification & Authentication of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants & Crude Drugs in Biodiversity Conservation, Traditional Knowledge and Drug Discovery”, organized by Janaki Ammal Herbarium & CDR, Plant Sciences & Agrotechnology Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu (IIIM), concluded today.
The workshop was organized under CSIR-Skill Development Initiative in collaboration with CSIR-Aroma Mission and Society for Ethnopharmacology (SFE), India Jammu Chapter.
Dr Zabeer Ahmed, Director IIIM, in his address, informed participants about the rich scientific legacy and strengths of IIIM in the field of drug discovery from natural resources. He encouraged participants to take full advantage of the expertise and facilities available at IIIM.
Dr Ajai Prakash Gupta, Director, Quality Assurance, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, New Delhi, presented his invited talk on the quality control and quality assurance of herbal medicine and food products.
Er Abdul Rahim, Chief Scientist and Head RMBD&IST Division, IIIM Jammu, stressed the need to learn advanced scientific techniques in the field. He suggested that the integration of Taxonomy and Drug discovery research with the field of Artificial Intelligence will be the key to success in the future.
Earlier, Dr Sumeet Gairola, Principal Scientist and Coordinator of the workshop briefly apprised participants about activities conducted during the past five days of the workshop. He apprized that a total of 25 participants including 13 women researchers from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, and J&K attended this workshop.
Dr Prasoon Gupta, Principal Scientist (IIIM) and Coordinator of the Society of Ethnopharmacology (SFE) Jammu Chapter, gave an introduction about SFE, Jammu Chapter, and encouraged participants to join it. Dr VP Rahul, Senior Scientist, IIIM, presented the vote of thanks.