Department of Medicinal Plant Research & Traditional Medicine
The Units/Divisions in the department are;
- Herbarium & Ethnobotany Unit
- Medicinal Plant Nursery, Garden and Plantation Unit
- Pharmacognosy Unit
- Phytochemistry Unit
- Pilot Plant Unit
MPR & TM Department has the core mission to identify, collect, process, conserve and standardize medicinal plants and herbal medicines. It has a total of twenty- one (21) staff members comprising of 8 RFs, 3 Technologists, 3 Forestry Officers and 7 other support staff. The Staff are from various fields and disciplines ranging from Organic chemistry, Chemical engineering, Pharmacy, Pharmacognosy, Plant taxonomy and Forestry management. The Department core projects and collaborations are centered around but are not limited to:
- Identification and documentation of medicinal plants for herbal product development.
- Development of e-Herbarium and cultivation of medicinal plants of interest.
- Phytochemical and chromatographic analyses of plant and herbal medicine extracts towards identification and quantification of bioactive constituents and standardization.
- Pharmacognostic and physicochemical evaluations towards identity, purity and provision of standards for herbal medicinal product.
- Simple bench top assays to screen medicinal plants for antisickling and antioxidant properties.
- Development of herbal products from medicinal plants and pilot-scale extraction and packaging of NIPRD oil.
- Capacity building on DNA Barcoding.
Functions of the department include;
- Plant Collection, identification and preservation in the herbarium
- DNA Barcoding for species identification
- Ethnobotanical information gathering, documentation and dissemination of indigenous knowledge
- Collection of seeds of interest for propagation/ gene bank development,
- Propagation/cultivation and processing of plant materials required for R & D
- Development and maintenance of Nursery, garden and plantation of medicinal plants.
- Macroscopic, microscopic, organoleptic, chemomicroscopic and physicochemical analyses for standardization of medicinal and aromatic plants.
- Extraction and extraction studies of medicinal and aromatic plants,
- Phytochemical studies of medicinal and aromatic plants (GCMS profiling, chromatography, isolation of bioactive plant constituents, chemical characterization, structural elucidation using advanced spectroscopic and synthetic techniques, optimization of methods of isolation of bioactive constituents)
- Freeze and spray drying of extracts of interest.
- Operation of a multipurpose bulk extractor for medicinal and aromatic plant materials.
- Fabrication of simple glassware and repairs.
- Operation of a GMP compliant API synthesis pilot.
- Operational research for health policy formulation.