The main features of the school are summarized below:

1) Screening the biodiversity for the lead finding from natural Products:

The interest of Pharmaceutical industries to screen natural product extracts for new biologically active compounds is increasing due to the high through-put screening methods. For this our huge biodiversity can be explored effectively to find out lead consisting of a large number of chemical structures with potent therapeutic activity for the treatment of deadly ailments. Through high throughput screening by enzyme inhibitory assays and other effective techniques and also by the use of sophisticated instruments like Centrifugal Partition Chromatography (CPC), counter current liquid-liquid partitioning chromatography, High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectroscopy (LCMS). Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectroscopy (GCMS) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (NMR). A number of compounds has been isolated and identified for their specific characteristics which will not only help to screen the compounds but also proper validation of the formulations of all traditional medicine can be made more effectively. These will definitely lead to a new way of investigation for the entire biodiversity more particularly the eastern and north eastern part of India for the screening of the herbal drugs and other natural products to a greater extent for the benefit of the common people to fulfill their healthcare need from the biodiversity.

2) Quality control of Natural products:

Considering the huge resources of herbal medicine in India, development of test procedures for assessing the identity, purity and content of medicinal plant materials are utmost essential. Potential therapeutic components can be developed easily by these resources but due to the lack of proper guidelines the quality concepts of herbal drugs has not developed up to that extent. For the development the quality and standardization parameters of herbal drugs and thereby to assist the herbal drugs manufacturers engaged in production, the manual responds to the growing use of medicinal plants and the corresponding needs for international guidance on reliable methods of quality control and development of standardization parameters is of great importance. Based on this concept the objective of the school is to:

► Evaluate the Phytochemical/ Phytopharmacological/ Microbiological/ Antiviral and allied properties of different herbal drugs relating to their development, quality control and standardization parameters.

► Develop the quality parameters of some herbal drugs which having potential therapeutic effects with the use of respective bio-markers and respective fingerprinting behavior.

► Evaluate the quality and standardization parameters of herbal drugs used in Ayurveda, Siddha, Homeopathy and other alternative systems of medicine through the formulation of in-house standard.

► Compilation of the legal status and allied approaches of herbal drugs of the developed countries and to develop their quality parameters.

3) Pharmacovigilance and safety assessment of natural products:

The main aim of the school in this aspect will be the institution of a systematic effort to collect, evaluate and disseminate data about adverse drug reactions and to prepare and disseminate clinical pharmacy materials that improve the awareness of the public towards herbal drugs resulting in improvement in the quality of use. Toxicity assessment of the prevalent formulations and also of the traditional dosage forms will be made for the acute, sub acute and chronic toxicity study, so that the clinical efficacy of the drugs can be reestablish in a better way for the development of natural products through different systems of Indian medicine including Ayurveda, Siddha , unani and Homeopathy. Work on this aspect can be highlighted with the Plan of work as follows:

A) Survey on the natural product so much so herbal drug formulations available in India

B) Identification of several centers practicing natural product viz. herbal therapy and establishing collaboration for Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) Monitoring.

C) Establishment of ADR monitoring facilities at the selected centers and surveillance of ADRs

D) Baseline study on the awareness of the consumers of herbal drugs at the study centers and ADR monitoring

E) Preparation and distribution and education on clinical pharmacy materials for the natural products formulations and related.

F) Analysis of data on ADRs for various formulations taking a few leads at the beginning to start with. The findings will help in further development of ADR Monitoring of different herbal formulations / traditional medicines being used in various centers practicing Alternative Systems of Medicine.

The main objective of the school is to explore natural products in every respect. The work is based upon the combined approaches of both exploitation and exploration which can be utilized in future to pursue a new line of investigation. The main stay of investigation being in the domain of natural product research so much so herbal medicine and allied approaches relating to their quality, safety, efficacy and scientifically validated natural product development.