JALUKBARI, Sept 3 - Professor Mukhlesur Rahman, leading scientist and head of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Division of East London University (ELU), London, delivered a lecture on �Antimicrobial resistance and importance of medicinal plant research� at Gauhati University (GU) today.
In his hour-long deliberation, Prof Rahman spoke about the scope for discovering drugs from herbal sources, stating that as a result of the use of antibiotics, right from the stage of infancy, the immune system develops resistance to antibiotics. Talking about his own research on medicinal plants in this particular area, he informed the gathering about isolation and discovery of three to four novel compounds from medicinal plants used traditionally by people in some parts of the world. He found them to be much more effective than those synthetic laboratory chemicals used as antibiotics in the modern medicine system.
Stressing that herbal drugs are always better than synthetic compounds, he highlighted the importance of medicinal plants as good sources for discovering better drugs for therapeutic uses. In this connection, he encouraged the students and researchers of the Northeast India to work on medicinal plants for better healthcare, as this part of Asia is a precious biodiversity hotspot.
Prof Prasanta Kumar Saikia, Head of the Department of Zoology, who inaugurated the programme, referring to the problem of antimicrobial resistance, also stressed the importance of the use of plants and herbs for curing many a disease. He said that people have been medicinal plants for ages, but it is the time the matter is looked into from a purely scientific point of view.
Prof Jogen Chandra Kalita, in charge of the GU international office and Director of UGC-HRDC, GU, extended an invitation to Prof Rahman to interact with the faculty members, research scholars and students at the University.
