Herbal Research

Strategy

An important aspect of our R&D vision and strategy is to leverage India’s bio-diversity and vast pool of knowledge in traditional medicinal systems such as Ayurveda to source drug lead molecules. Piramal Healthcare Research has a unique and diverse collection of natural product extracts from microbes and plants from rare habitats in India. Discovery efforts are also directed towards evaluating and investigating medicinal extracts and preparations from herbs and plants used by tribals and cited in ancient Ayurvedic texts. We aim to bring herbal medication to the therapeutic forefront by applying modern science and clinical validation techniques.

Activities

Piramal Healthcare undertakes several activities in the area of herbal discovery & development; these include:

• Screening, marker identification and standardization of selected herbs; formulation and development of analytical methods for evidence-based innovative phytopharmaceuticals
• Enrichment of phytochemicals active in selected herbal extracts and activity profiling based on bioactivity guided fractionation to obtain patentable bio-actives or NCEs.

Publications

1. A promising natural remedy for psoriasis.
   Amladi S, Nayak C, Torsekar R, Vishalakshi V, Khopkar U, Saraf V, Kulkarni S, Shindikar A, Patil A, Patil S, Parikh H, Suthar A, Chauhan V, Padigaru M, Chandrabharti D, Sharma S.
   Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (JAAD), 62, No. 3, March 2010, Pg.3333
2. 7–Hydroxyfrullanolide, a sesquiterpene lactone, inhibits pro-inflammatory cytokine production from immune cells and is orally efficacious in animal models of inflammation.
   Lyle C. Fonseca, Shruta S. Dadarkar, Aurelio S. Lobo, Ashish C. Suthar, Vijay S. Chauhan, Shanti Chandrababu, Somesh D. Sharma, Nilesh M. Dagia, Muralidhara Padigaru.
   European Journal of Pharmacology, 644, 2010, Pg.200-229
3. NF-KB- medicated anti-inflammatory activity of sesquiterpene lactone 7-hydroxyfrullanolide.
   Lyle C. Fonseca, Shruta S. Dadarkar, Aurelio S. Lobo, Prabha B. Mishra, Arvind D. Thakkar, Shanti Chandrababu, Muralidhara Padigaru.
   European Journal of Pharmacology, 657, 2011, Pg.41-50