Natural Product Chemistry is a key Department of ICMR-NITM that studies the chemistry of medicinal plants and formulations. It carries out chemo profiling of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs), in addition to extraction, isolation, identification, characterization, and determination of key fractions, phytoconstituents, bio-actives, etc.
Infrastructure:
The Department that is envisaged to include Organic chemistry, Medicinal chemistry and Inorganic chemistry, is equipped with state of art equipment that includes Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), Gas Chromatography (with FID & ECD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Ultraviolet–Visible Spectroscopy, High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC- preparative scale), High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography (HPTLC), Flash Chromatography (FC), Solvent extractor, Lyophilizer, Rotary Evaporator and other minor equipment.
In addition, the Department has required facilities to dry plant materials, preparation of extract, fractionation viz., Column Chromatography, Flash Chromatography and purification or isolation of pure molecule using Preparative HPLC.
Achievements:
The Natural Product Chemistry Department has identified several compounds of interest, often for the first time in several MAPs. The Department has documented the existence of various chemotypes of several Medicinal plants in the Western Ghats region.
The Natural Product Chemistry Department has identified extract(s), fraction(s) as well as isolated pure compound(s) with potent anti-hyperglycaemic activity through pre-clinical studies.
Academics/Studentship:
The Department welcomes Post-Doctoral and PhD students and is recognized for guideship by KAHER (KLE Deemed University), Belagavi. A limited number of students of M.Sc in Biological Sciences and Chemistry/Pharmacy/AYUSH backgrounds are also provided training and internship in various laboratory techniques.