The Department of Pharmacognosy is engaged in imparting basic and advanced aspects of different natural sources as pharmaceutical raw materials, traditional medicines, phytochemical screening and the scope of Indian medicinal plants in the allied sciences like food, nutraceuticals, and cosmetics. The department deals with the theoretical as well as practical knowledge of undergraduate courses related to pharmacognosy, phytochemistry, analytical pharmacognosy, the chemistry of natural products, herbal drug technology, and nutraceuticals. The department is offering consultancy services to the herbal drug industries, various research institutes, and cosmetic companies completed many consultancy projects. Several students are pursuing their PhD under the guidance of the able faculties in the department with research fellowships under the Government scheme of DBT, INSPIRE-DST and Women Scientist WOS-A.
The identification, authentication, and standardisation of medicinal plants require high-resolution microscopes like projecting microscope, digital microscopes, and basic extraction facilities. The Pharmacognosy laboratories are well equipped for offering infrastructure support for complete sample preparation, analysis, and characterisation of phytoconstituents. The department also houses a state of the art facility for performing stereotaxic surgery and microdialysis-based neuropharmacological experiments and a well-developed medicinal plant garden “Nirma Herbal Wealth” covering a total area of 3356.5 sq. Meters with more than 150 varieties of species and more than 500 plants extend the scope to research on medicinal plants.
Instruments and other facilities available in the department are HPTLC, UV Chamber, UV Spectrophotometer, Colorimeter, Soxhlet Apparatus, Extraction and Distillation Unit, Shaker Water Bath, Ultrasonic Water Bath, Magnetic Stirrers, Rotary Evaporator, High-Speed Homogeniser, ELISA Plate Reader, Freeze Dryer, Ultra Centrifuge, Olympus Fluorescent Microscope, Stereotaxic Apparatus, Microdialysis System.
The department has been actively doing consultancy projects for many herbal and nutraceuticals companies and for phytopharmacological evaluation of herbal drugs and their combinations for wound healing, anti-obesity, neuroprotective activity, anticancer, antidiabetic and also in toxicity studies. The department has received a research project grant worth more than one million rupees with the major project from Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi, Department of Science and Technology and minor projects from GUJCOST, Gandhinagar and Nirma University. Faculty members have several national & international publications and published one Indian patent for their invention. Many PhD students have been benefited from research fellowships under the Government scheme of DBT, INSPIRE-DST and Women Scientist WOS-A. The department has developed new formulations like anti-oxidant effervescent granules, herbal shampoos and other herbal cosmetics for various companies and is involved in various collaborative research projects with leading herbal, cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies like Green Chem, Bangalore, Beiersdorf (NIVEA), Ahmedabad, Mikasa Cosmetics, Ahmedabad, Brillare Science Pvt. Ltd, Ahmedabad, Troikaa Pharma, Ahmedabad, K. Patel Phyto Extract Pvt. Ltd, Bhilad Ayurlab Herbals Pvt. Ltd, Vadodara and Divine Skin Care, Gandhinagar, etc. The department regularly organises CCE events and national seminars and workshops with the support of Government funding agencies like AICTE, ICMR & GUJCOST, etc.