Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

Picrorhiza kurroa is an important medicinal herb used in various herbal formulations containing iridoid glycosides picroside-I (P-I) and picroside-II (P-II) as major constituents. P. kurroa has broad range of pharmacological activities like hepato-protective, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant, neuroprotective, etc. The proper concentration and ratio of P-I and P-II are important in determining quality and efficacy of P. kurroa-based herbal drug formulations. Majority of the plant material used in the preparation of herbal drugs is collected from the wild, thereby necessitating quality control on raw material. Picrosides contents in rhizomes can be influenced by several factors such as environment (altitude, light intensity, soil conditions, etc.), genetic makeup of different strains of P. kurroa and time of collection of plant material. Different batches of plant material may differ in quality due to these factors. Determination of P-I and P-II contents in different organs of different age groups revealed that mature rhizomes should be harvested while not uprooting the entire underground biomass which not only results in loss of plant material from its natural habitat but also results in variations in the contents of P-I and P-II. We have identified P. kurroa strains which contain desired amounts of P-I and P-II contents and details of their in vitro conservation and usage will be presented. Genetically superior strains coupled with proper harvesting practice can provide authentic raw material for the preparation of herbal formulations of P. kurroa.

Biography

Rajinder Singh Chauhan has completed his PhD with specialization in Plant Biotechnology at HPAU, Palampur in 1991. He has joined as Assistant Professor and played a key role in the establishment of Biotech Center at HPAU till 1997. He then moved to the USA as a Visiting Scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison through Young Scientist Fellowship schemes, DBT Overseas Associate and DST BOYSCAST of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Goverment of India (1997-2004). He had advanced trainings in high throughput genomics at various Institutes in the USA such as The Institute of Genomics Research, Maryland; Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University; Crop Biotech Center, Texas A and M University, College Station. He then joined back as an Associate Profesoor at HPAU, Palampur in 2004 and set up a DBT funded Bioinformatics Center as a Program Coordinator. He is the Recipient of Jawahar Lal Nehru Academic Award of the ICAR and the PranVohra Award of the Indian Science Congress Association. His current research program is aimed at gene discovery for industrial phytochemicals. He is currently working as Dean (Biotechnology) and provided Leadership to rank the Department among top biotech schools in India.

Email: rajinder.chauhan@rediffmail.com