A five days National Hands-on Workshop on “Taxonomic Identification & Authentication of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants & Crude Drugs in Biodiversity Conservation, Traditional Knowledge and Drug Discovery” organized by Janaki Ammal Herbarium & CDR, Plant Sciences & Agrotechnology Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu (IIIM) from 21st to 25th March 2023 under CSIR-Skill Development Initiative in collaboration with CSIR-Aroma Mission and Society for Ethnopharmacology (SFE), India Jammu Chapter concluded on 25th March 2023.

Dr. Zabeer Ahmed, Director IIIM, in his address congratulated the participants for successfully completing the workshop and appreciated the efforts of the organizers and student volunteers in organizing the event. He informed participants about the rich scientific legacy and strengths of IIIM in the field of Drug Discovery from Natural Resources.

Guest of Honour Dr. Ajai Prakash Gupta, Director, Quality Assurance, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, New Delhi presented his invited talk on the Quality Control and Quality assurance of herbal medicine and food products.

Er. Abdul Rahim, Chief Scientist and Head RMBD&IST Division, IIIM Jammu stressed the need to learn advanced scientific techniques in the field. He suggested that the integration of Taxonomy and Drug discovery research with the field of Artificial Intelligence will be the key to success in the future.

Earlier, Dr. Sumeet Gairola, Principal Scientist and Coordinator of the Workshop welcomed the guests and briefly apprised participants about activities conducted during the past five days of the workshop. He apprized that a total of 25 participants including 13 women researchers from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, and J&K attended this workshop. He further informed that nineteen lectures and six Hands-on training sessions on the relevant theme of the workshop were conducted for the benefit of the participants.

Dr. Prasoon Gupta, Principal Scientist (IIIM) and Coordinator of the Society of Ethnopharmacology (SFE) Jammu Chapter gave an introduction about SFE, Jammu Chapter, and encouraged participants to join it.

Nineteen eminent experts from the fields of Plant Taxonomy, Biodiversity Conservation, Traditional Knowledge, and Drug Discovery from different parts of the country visited IIIM Jammu and presented invited lectures in their respective fields. The invited talks were presented by Prof. P.L. Uniyal (Univ. of Delhi), Dr. A.K.S. Rawat (NBRI, Lucknow), Dr. Charu Lata (CSIR-NIScPR Delhi, Editor IJTK), Dr. Sarvesh Suyal (BS(PG) College, Uttarakhand), Dr. Ajay Kumar (Central Univ. of Kerala), Dr. R.S. Jayasomu (CSIR-NISCPR Delhi, Editor IJEB), Dr. Sumeet Gairola (IIIM, Jammu), Dr. Prasoon Gupta (IIIM, Jammu), Dr. Shreekar Pant (BGSBU Rajouri), Dr. D.K. Semwal (Uttarakhand Ayurved University, Dehradun), Dr. Narendra Kumar (CSIR-CIMAP, Lucknow), Prof. Yash Pal Sharma (Univ. of Jammu), Dr. Kanwaljeet Singh (GCW, Parade, Jammu), Dr. B.S. Bhellum (GCW, Parade, Jammu), Dr. Gyanendra Singh (ICMR-NIOH, Ahmadabad), Dr. Ajai Prakash Gupta (FSSAI, Delhi), Dr. Nasir Ul Rasheed (IIIM, Jammu), Dr. Kanchrela Prasad (IIIM, Jammu), and Dr. Pankaj Kumar