Department of Pharmacognostic Science:

Activities:

	The identification and authentication of the raw plant material based on pharmacognostic and phytochemical studies.
	Processing of the raw plant material and to carry out quality control studies.
	Screening of pesticides, radioactivity  heavy metals and foreign organic matters.
	Preparation of different plant extracts, their standardization and quality control studies and fingerprinting based on chromatographic and spectroscopic studies.
	Isolation and Identification of marker compounds.
	To detect and find out possible adulteration of orthodox drugs in the herbal medicines is amongst one of the activities of the department besides finding out adulteration of spurious herbs used in place of genuine herbs.
	Different samples received from various sources including unknown samples are being analysed thoroughly; about 40 samples have been analysed so far.
	Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and Good Laboratory Practices(GLP) are effectively employed in order to assure quality and regulation of the Herbal Medicines.
	Biopesticides from the plant itself is another area where the department is working effectively.
	Students from different educational institutes of UAE are being trained on different theoretical and experimental aspects of pharmacognostic sciences besides general lectures.
	The Department is contributing actively for the publication of research papers in Journals of repute and researchers are participating in local & International conferences & seminars, so far about forty papers and abstracts have been published.
	Preparation of “Official Monographs on the Individual Medicinal Plants” and “ Herbal Pharmacopoeia of UAE” are among the main targets of the Department and are under active progress.