Padmabhushan Prof. V. L. Chopra, Member Planning Commission, Govt. of India, today inaugurated the Natural Products Field laboratory (NPFL) at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) at S.A.S. Nagar. Dr. Harkishan Singh, Professor Emeritus, PU, Chandigarh was the guest of honour at the function. \r\nSpeaking on the occasion, Prof. Chopra said that NIPER mandate would be further strengthened by determining its constituent of Natural plants products. Naturally, the Herbals contribute to health care systems, which becomes a major components of a society. Herbals in general all over the world and countries like India in particular have very important place in societal well-being. India has 15000 herbal plants species, which cures larger section of the population of the country to maintain health and vigor. Speaking about NIPER contribution, he added that NIPER has unique strengths and these strengths are in the area of product reutilization, constituent's delimitation and the method of extraction of compound with minimum resources. NIPER has tremendous role to play in the field of devising certification procedures and components for products of the future derived out of the herbals. \r\nIn the beginning Prof. P. Rama Rao, Director, NIPER welcomed the Guests. He appealed to the budding scientist that they have to accept the challenges faced by the pharma industry and should try their best to come up with new drug discovery in the field of Natural products and traditional medicines. \r\nDr. Harkishan Singh, Professor Emeritus, PU, Chandigarh, the guest of honour while addressing the audience said that rationalization of traditional medicines in the present scenario is the need of the hour and area to work upon. He said that NIPER has played a vital role in the research study of natural products. He also said that the unseen facts of natural products and traditional medicines should be exposed and discoved for the betterment of humanity and our budding scientist should accept this challenge.\r\nExplicating the objective of the establishment of NPFL, Prof. K. K. Bhutani, Head, Dept. of Natural Products, NIPER said that NPFL will act as a base for physical resources and related research in natural products and traditional system of the medicine. The herbs grown at the Medicinal Plants Garden of the Institute will be converted into the organic solvent free extracts at NPFL to conduct further R&D in the Research & Teaching block of NIPER. The facility, besides being equipped with advanced pharmacognosy and chemistry laboratories for diagnostic and standardization purposes, shall have modern plant tissue culture and biotechnology, propagation and germplasm conservation facilities. He added that NPFL shall have advanced extraction systems for crude plant drugs which involve minimal use of solvents in line with green chemistry, including a significant facility state-of-the-art Supercritical Fluid Extractor (SCFE) of pilot scale. \r\nOver 100 people, including educators, burgeoning scientists from various institutions of Chandigarh; faculty, staff and students of the Institute were present during the inaugural function. \r\n |
