As per the World Bank Report, the international market for Herbal Drugs is estimated to be more than 60 billion US$ which is expected to grow upto 6 trillion US$ by the end of 2050. At present per capita/year consumption of over the counter (OTC) Herbal drugs in Germany is 37.0 US$, Europe 17.4 US$ and in India 2.8 US$, which is likely to double in the near future. In the developing countries, Herbal medicine still remains the mainstay of primary healthcare because of better compatibility with human body and lesser side effects. Moreover there has been a resurgence in the use of Herbal Drugs in the world market. Keeping in view the status and future trends of herbal drugs, the focus of this department is to perform extensive R&D work on PROSPECTING BIODIVERSITY for its chemistry to isolate phytochemicals/ phytophar- maceuticals, activity guided extracts, fractions and single molecules for the development standardization and quality control of herbal/synthetic drugs and aroma chemicals.

Leads have already been obtained in our laboratory against various diseases such as Parkinson's disease, fungal diseases, infection, arthritis, hepatotoxicity, immune-disorders, adaptogens, asthma, allergic disorders, cancer, diabetes and tuberculosis with or without bioenhancers.

It is planned to make investigation of about 200 medicinal plants in shortest possible time. Large number of marker compounds has been isolated from these plants, which are being used for standardizing the active fractions from these plants. The marker compounds are also made available to other institutes on request. Plants showing significant bioactivities are being taken up for detailed chemical investigation. A large number of new as well as known compounds have been isolated, identified and their biological activity studied.