Pharmacognosy

Pharmacognosy is an important discipline in the Pharmacy curriculum and deals with the study of crude drugs that includes plants, animals and marine sources. The subject has played a diverse role in the discovery, characterization, production and standardisation of crude drugs. In the recent past, the world has witnessed a tremendous renewal of interest in natural products in the area of drug discovery, cosmeceuticals and neutraceuticals. Pharmacognosy now encompasses many fields like botany, ethanobotany, marine biology, microbiology, alternative medicines, chemistry, pharmacology, phytochemistry, pharmaceutics, clinical pharmacy and molecular biology and has a multidisciplinary approach.

The department is engaged in undergraduate teaching and has a well-equipped laboratory and medicinal garden. The garden is well maintained.. Presently the garden houses around 40 well labeled plants that have value in the field of medicine and cosmetics.

Pharmacognosy Laboratory is equipped with the instruments such as microscopes (Simple, Compound), Muffle Furnace, UV chamber, Autoclave, pH meter, centrifuge, various extraction assemblies such as Soxhlet apparatus, Clevenger apparatus etc. Identification of crude drugs by microscopy, isolation of phytoconstituents, phytochemical screening, herbal drug standardization, qualitative and quantitative evaluation of crude drugs are some of the major experiments being carried out in the Pharmacognosy laboratory.