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Organized by
Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA)
Jointly with
National Medicinal Plant Board (NMPB)
In collaboration with
Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC)
August 21st – 22nd, 2009
Mumbai
The inaugural session had a crisp overview of the program by the Workshop Coordinator, Dr. Alka Mukne. The Hon. Gen. Secretary of IPA, S. D. Joag welcomed the audience & thanked NMPB & IPC for extending support to the program. The Chief Guest of the session was Dr. G. N. Singh, Secretary-cum-Scientific Director of Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. G. N. Singh informed the participants about the steps taken by IPC to augment the number of herbal monographs in the future volumes of IP.
The first talk of the workshop was delivered by the Course Director, Dr. D. B. A. Narayana. Dr. Narayana discussed about the need to include monographs of herbs, herbal extracts & herbal products in IP. The Role of IP in developing objectively assessable quality specifications for herbs and herbal products was highlighted and various SOP’s developed for the same, the process adopted by IP, the benefits of doing so to industry and researchers He also stated that due to this, IP has gained attention form other pharmacopeia in the world. Contribution of limited number of scientists has sofar made this possible, and there is an urgent need to multiply this national effort and hence this workshop was thought off. Similar workshops would be organized at Kolkatta, Bangalore and New Delhi later. He also guided the delegates as to how they could participate in this national effort. Dr. Raman Singh, Principal Scientific Officer & Head, R&D of Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, apprised the members about the essential prerequisites that go into drafting a typical herbal monograph. The next session on good sampling & photography techniques of crude drugs was delivered by Dr. K.S.Laddha, Professor of Pharmacognosy & Phytochemistry in Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. With the help of pertinent case studies, Dr. Laddha also highlighted the general steps involved in preparing Phytochemical Reference Substances. Mr. Balasubramanian Murali, Senior Manager- Quality Control at Natural Remedies Pvt. Ltd. discussed in detail, the dos & don’ts of developing robust chromatographic methods for herbal drugs by using Botanical Reference Substances. Mr. Murali also made an exhaustive presentation on how to develop the mandatory assay test using a phytochemical reference substance.
Dr. George Patani, Director of Inga Labs in his talk on developing monographs of herbal extracts & formulations, emphasized on the need to include these monographs in IP; to look beyond ‘balm’ & ‘chyawanprash’ as herbal formulations. Dr. Amit Agarwal, Director of Research & Development of Natural Remedies Pvt. Ltd. in the next session discussed ways & means of building a repository of reference substances at the IPC laboratories. The last talk of the day was by Dr. S. C. Mathur, Scientific Officer, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, on steps involved in drafting a herbal monograph. The sessions for the day wound up with an interactive panel discussion, where the entire team of speakers, very ably led by Dr. D. B. A. Narayana was able to sort out the queries of the delegates.
Day 2 of the workshop had a session on HPTLC by Mr. Krishnan, Lab Manager, Anchrom. This was followed by demonstration of qualitative & quantitative estimation of crude drugs by HPTLC & HPLC.
The workshop was sponsored by NMPB & supported by IPC. Over 70 delegates from academia, herbal drug industry, herbal extract manufacturers & Ayurvedic companies participated in the workshop. There was great appreciation of the efforts from the delegates and many volunteered to work for IP.
