Pharmacognosy section deals with botanical aspects of drug standardization and development of quality standards for ASU&H single drugs/compound formulations and drug identification protocols. The main focus of section is to evolve pharmacopoeial standards of single drugs of plant origin and compound formulations. The section is responsible for ascertaining botanical identity of source plants and their parts used in ASU&H drugs. Developing and validating Pharmacopoeial parameters such as Macroscopic and Microscopic identification along with powder characterization of ASU&H drugs is also one of the major work areas. Section is well equipped with modern scientific instruments viz. microtome, compound microscope and digital microscope with latest image applications used for Pharmacopoeial work. Apart from the development of Pharmacopoeial standards, the section also provides hands on training on pharmacognostic tools used in the standardization of ASU&H drugs to drugs inspectors, asst. drugs controllers, Govt. analyst, faculty and student of various colleges across the Nation. This section also maintains a repository of Botanical Reference Standards (BRS), Raw Drug Museum, Herbarium and a Herb garden.

Botanical Reference Standards Repository

The Commission, as one of its mandates, has to maintain a National repository of authentic reference raw materials used in the manufacture of ASU&H medicines for the purpose of reference and supply of reference standards to the stake holders. Plant origin drug substances being a major component of the raw materials used in ASU&H medicines, a dedicated Botanical Reference Standards (BRS) repository is being developed and maintained for repository as well as for supply to stake holders as reference standards.

Botanical Reference Standards mainly comprise of crude drugs of plant origin. Genuine samples collected from natural habitat during surveys as well as procured otherwise are duly authenticated and added to the repository. Each of the BRS samples is supported with requisite documentation data (Passport data). The data covers Basic information such as ID code, names according to various pharmacopoeias, botanical name, vernacular names, source, date of collection, storage conditions etc., pharmacognostic details and Analytical profile as prescribed by the pharmacopoeia.

Museum

A museum of crude drugs which are used in the ASU&H System of Medicines has also been maintaining in Commission. More than 2000 dried samples of crude drugs of various sources viz. plant, animal, chemical and mineral- metal are well stored in the museum for reference purpose along with to educate the students and visitors visited to Commission time to time.

Raw drug samples which are collected during the survey cum collection tours or procured are stored in the museum in dried form and also preserved by using of modern scientific techniques according to the nature of the drugs. Museum have a huge collection of rare and exotic drug samples of plant as well as animal sources for Homoeopathy systems of medicine. Homoeopathic crude drug samples received from abroad sources are also well preserved in this museum.

Herbarium

Commission also houses a herbarium of medicinal plants which are used in the ASU&H system of medicines. The plant specimens of herbarium are collected from various agro-climatic zones of India during the survey cum collection tours. These herbariums are used for identification and reference purposes. At present more than 2300 herbarium sheets are maintained in the Herbarium.

Germ Plasm Bank

A Germ Plasm bank for the seeds of ASU&H Medicinal plants has also been maintained by the Pharmacognosy section. The seeds collected from the herbal garden and also obtained from various sources are preserved in the germ plasm bank.

Herb Garden

The Commission also maintains a Herb garden of 36,500 sq. ft.  area which spread in 3 separate blocks and houses a total of more than 200 species of medicinal plants. In the A- Block of the Herb garden, exclusively the medicinal plants specific to Homoeopathic medicine including some rare exotic plant species are well maintained. A small organic cultivation unit has also been set up here. The B & C Block of the Herb garden houses Medicinal plants used in ASU systems of medicine.

The produce of garden is used to laying down quality standards of ASU&H drugs to check the adulterant or substandard botanical source. The produce of herbal garden is also preserve in the museum for reference purposes. Seeds produced from herbal garden are also preserved in the Germ Plasm for further uses.

The garden is also used for the demonstration purpose to educate the students of collages of ASU&H systems of medicine as per their curriculum and also other scholars visit Commission from India and abroad. Garden also serve the information regarding the proper taxonomical and morphological identification of genuine medicinal plants used in the various System of Medicine.

Activities

1. Botanical standardization of single plant drugs of ASU&H by macroscopy, microscopy and powder characterization
2. Development of standards for ASU formulations
3. Pharmacognostic validation of Pharmacopoeial work
4. Testing of samples received from Court and drug inspectors
5. Conducting survey and collection tours to different agro-climatic zones of the country to collect samples of raw drugs and plant material for Herbarium. These collected raw drug samples are authenticated, analyzed and duly processed so as to add/update them to the museum/BRS repository as well as for developing Pharmacopoeial Standards.
6. To develop and maintain National level BRS Repository with passport data of authentic reference raw materials used in the manufacture of ASU&H medicines
7. To develop and maintain a Herbarium of the source plants of crude drugs used in ASU&H systems of medicine
8. To develop and maintain a Germ Plasm bank of Seeds
9. To develop and maintain a National Herb garden for the source plants of the Pharmacopoeial drugs used in ASU&H systems of medicine.
10. To develop and maintain a digitized macroscopic images library of crude drugs
11. To develop and maintain the library of digital microscopy photographs of crude drugs.
12. Capacity building/imparting training to the drugs inspectors, Asst. drugs controllers, Govt. analyst, faculties students etc. of various colleges across the Nation and project other stakeholders
13. Research & Development and publishing related scientific information
14. Any other technical and non-technical work allotted pertaining to pharmacognosy

Technical team

• Dr Jayanthy A., Principal Scientific Officer (Pharmacognosy), Head of the Section
• Dr (Mrs.) Nitin Rai Scientific Officer (Pharmacognosy)
• Dr. Lalit Tiwari, Scientific Assistant (Pharmacognosy)
• Mr Jitendra Pal Singh, Research Assistant (Botany)
• Ms. Nilima Singh Research Assistant (Botany)
• Mr Suman Halder, Research Assistant (M&H)
• Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, Lab Assistant

On Going Project

1. “Development of National Herbal Garden for Pharmacopoeial species” Funded by NMPB Ministry of AYUSH.

2. “Establishment of Regional Raw Drug Repository (Gangetic Plain Region)” Funded by NMPB, Ministry of AYUSH