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An important milestone in our march for the attainment
of higher objectives in the field of medicinal plants
research is the establishment of the Centre
for Medicinal Plants Research. This was made
possible by the generous funding from Sir Dorabji
TATA Trust, Mumbai. The work on CMPR was initiated
by Arya Vaidya Sala in June 2002 with a view to satisfying a long
felt need for an Institution for conservation and
study of medicinal plants used in Ayurveda. The new
building comprising an administrative block, botany,
phytochemistry and tissue culture laboratories was
inaugurated by His Excellency Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam,
The President of India on September 25 2003, in the
presence of Sri. A. K. Antony, honourable Chief Minister
of Kerala, Dr. M. S. Swaminathan and other dignitaries.
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His Excellancy
Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, The President of India, inaugurating
the CMPR
Thrust
areas
Exploration, Collection, Conservation and Documentation
of medicinal plants of Kerala and neighboring regions.
Establishing a medicinal plant gene bank with field,
in vitro, and seed bank components.
Resource mapping of Rare, Endangered and Threatened
medicinal plants.
Detailed investigations on the Crude drugs and their
plant sources to establish the genuineness of the
source and to evolve standards.
Botanical, Pharmacognostic, phytochemical and pharmacological
profiling of medicinal plants.
Molecular profiling of important medicinal plants.
Rapid tissue Culture propagation of important and
recalcitrant medicinal plants with a view to widen
the resource base to the Ayurvedic industry and also
to repopulate the forest niches.
Analysis, extraction, identification, study and utilization
of the bioactive principles from medicinal plants.
Screening of germplasm of the important medicinal
plant species for locating superior chemotypes and
genotypes.
Processing and value of addition of medicinal plants.
Popularization of medicinal plant cultivation on a
large scale and also to supply genuine planting material
for commercial cultivation and to the people of the
rural areas.
Establishing a data bank on the medicinal plants of
Kerala.
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Major Divisions
The centre has established laboratories /facilities for the
study of the following:
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Taxonomy |
Tissue culture |
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Genetic resources |
Phytochemistry |
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Anatomy |
Extension activities |
Main Facilities
Infrared
spectrophotometer, Ultraviolet spectrophotometer, HPLC, Research
microscope with photographic attachment and Stereo Microscope.
Tissue
culture facility for large scale propagation of selected medicinal
plants.
Field
Gene Bank for Medicinal Plants.
In vitro
gene bank for medicinal plants.
Expertise
for conducting field survey, identification and chemical screening
of medicinal and aromatic plants.
Image
library of medicinal plants.
Library
on medicinal and aromatic plants.
Taxonomy
Exploration, identification, collection and documentation
Forest Exploration
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Exploration,
identification, collection and documentation of the
known and lesser known rare and endangered taxa used
in Ayurvedic system of traditional medicine from various
localities in the southern states of India i.e. Kerala,
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, in order to
study the extent of rarity and intra-specific variations.
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National Gene Bank for Ayurvedic Medicinal Plants (NGBAMP)
Collection of germplasm of the known and lesser known rare and
endangered taxa used in Ayurvedic system of traditional medicine
from various localities in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and
Andhra Pradesh to develop a live bank of variants of medicinal
plants.
Seed
Bank
A seed gene bank of rare, endangered and endemic Ayurvedic
medicinal plants possessing orthodox seeds for conserving
genetic diversity at different temperatures is being
maintained.
Herbarium and Raw Drug Museum (HRDM) |
Inauguration of the Field Gene Bank
by Dr. P.K. Warrier |
| Enrichment
of the existing herbarium and raw drug museum of Ayurvedic
medicinal plants has been started by adding new ones collected
during the survey trips. |
Plant Image Library (PIL)
Consists of images of medicinal plants, rare, red-listed and
endemic ones with necessary details
Digitized Database of Medicinal Plants (DDMP)
This database will consist of all the information on medicinal
plants such as names in different languages, description,
distribution, anatomical, phytochemical, taxonomical characters
and medicinal importance together with relevant photographs.
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Anatomy
Anatomical characterisation of controversial raw drug used
in Ayurvedic medicines to evolve standards for genuine source
plant from the spurious ones.
Micromorphological
status of plant part using simple microtechnique and photomicrography.
Histological
studies of different useful plant parts using microtechnique
and photomicrography.
Cellular
structure identification using maceration technique.
Comparative
anatomical studies of genuine/substitute and adulterant raw
drugs.
Standardisation
of the genuine source plant using cellular and histological
characters.
Phytochemistry
Comparative
chemical profiling of raw drug and their different source
plants
Chemical
profiling of selected medicinal plants
Chemical
prospecting of medicinal plants and characterization of biologically
active compounds
Pharmacological
evaluation of isolated bioactive component by both in vivo
and in vitro methods
T.S of Tinospora Stem
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An image analysis and
identification Facility
in the Pharmacognosy laboratory |
Tissue Culture
Standardisation of micropropagation protocols for important
and endangered medicinal plants
Conservation of genetic resources of important and endangered
medicinal plants in in vitro gene bank
Large scale multiplication of selected medicinal plants
for the production planting material
Dr. M. S. Swaminathan
visiting the facility
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Tissue culture facility |
Extension activities
Extension activities are being carried out in a big way for
creating general awareness among the public on various aspects
of medicinal plants such as conservation, cultivation, evaluation,
processing and product development.
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View
of a seminar for promotion of medicinal plant cultivation |
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