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Dr. Khursheed Ahmad Bhat
Senior Principal Scientist
Bio organic Chemistry Division
CSIR – Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine,Canal Road, Jammu – 180001
Email: kabhat[at]iiim[dot]res[dot]in
Bio Sketch
Dr Khursheed Ahmad Bhat, Ph. D. (Born 1973) obtained the masters degree
in Organic Chemistry in 2000 from University of Kashmir and qualified the national eligibility
test (CSIR NET) in 2001. He completed the Ph. D. programme under the joint supervision of
Dr S. C. Taneja (CSIR-IIIM) and Prof M. A. Qureshi (University of Kashmir) from University
of Kashmir (2008). He works in the area of Natural product Chemistry as Pr. Sci. at CSIRIIIM Srinagar.
Dr Bhat was inducted as scientist in 2oo6 at CSIR-IIIM Jammu and
thereafter moved to Srinagar branch of IIIM to establish the Bio-organic Chemistry lab. He
has published more than fifty five papers. His areas of interest are bioprospection of high
altitude medicinal plants of Kashmir Himalayas for product development. Isolation,
characterization and bioevaluation of natural products from plants/ microbes; quantification
of marker compounds and standardization of plant extracts; fine tuning of natural isolates for
value addition; design and synthesis of bioactives based on natural product scaffolds. He
has also worked in the field of biotransformation and discovered new sources of
oxidorectases and lipases from microbial biodiversity.
Education
| Degree | Subjects | University | Qualifying Year |
| Ph D | Bio Organic Chemistry | University of Kashmir | 2008 |
| CSIR- NET | Organic Chemistry | —-d0—— | 2001 |
| M. Sc | Organic Chemistry | —-d0—— | 2000 |
| B. Sc | Chemistry, Zoology and Botany | —-d0—— | 1997 |
Position Held
| Position Held | Period | Organization |
| Senior Principal Scientist | 2023-present | CSIR-IIIM |
| Pr. Sci | 2018-2023 | CSIR-IIIM |
| Sr. Sci | 2013-2018 | CSIR-IIIM |
| Scientist | 2009-2013 | CSIR-IIIM |
| Jr. Scientist | 2006-2009 | CSIR-IIIM |
Area of Expertise
Natural Product Chemistry:
Bioorganic chemistry lab is actively engaged in the bio- prospection of natural products from high altitude medicinal plants/ microflora of Kashmir Himalayas. Exploration of new scaffolds/ novel molecules/ bioactive constituents from endemic plant species of Kashmir is the thrust area of research. Phytochemistry, estimation of marker compounds and development of fingerprints of certain medicinal plants have been carried out. Typically the chemobiological studies, development of standardised and validated analytical methods of Epimedium elatum , Artemisia amygdalina and Artemisia moorcroftiana have been carried out.
A number of novel and known secondary metabolites from plants/ microbes have been isolated and characterised using spectral data analysis. The isolates have diverse chemical structures: lactones, alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, coumarins polyacetylenes etc.
Fine tuning of a few isolated natural products, using some well established chemical procedures, have been carried out. The value added natural products include sclareol, ludartin, phytosterols and icariin.
Hemisynthesis of antitumor arglabin from natural product ludartin, Hemisynthesis of aromatase inhibitors: testololactone and testolactone from phytosterols, Design and synthesis of antitumor sclareol analogues, SAR studies of Ludartin etc have been our focus in natural product based medicinal chemistry programme.
Herbal based product development
Our primary aim is product development from natural resources. In this direction huge data has been generated for
the development of natural product based aphrodisiac product.The necessary chemical, CMC and biological data of the desired formulation has been generated. Thus an encapsulated formulation has been developed using Institute’s cGMP facility
Projects
- Bioprospection of Artemisia amygdalina, Artemisia moocroftiana and Parrotiopsis jacquemontiana (PI)
- Chemoprofiling of Delphinium denudatum (JADWAR) and Achillea millefolium (Biranjasif) and their unani formulation (PI)
- Natural Product Chemistry and Pharmacology of Medicinal plants (Co-PI)
- MedicinalChemistry for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine(Co-PI)
- Development of 4-Ethylpiperic acid (EPA) Congeners as Efflux Pump Inhibitors (EPIs) (Mentor)
- Development of natural product based aromatase inhibitors (Mentor)
- Bioevaluation of Rheum emodi and Arnebia benthamii against triple negative breast cancer (Mentor)
- Endosymbiotic bacteria in plant associated funji; elucidation their role in Fungal biology (Co-PI)
- Development of bioactive natural product from Artemisia moorcroftiana/ Stachys tibetica/ Senecio graciliflorus (PI)
- CSIR Floriculture Mission Phase I (Co-PI)
- CSIR AROMA MISSION Phase I (Co-PI)
Representative Publications
- Amin H, Kaur G, Goswami A, Bhat KA. Facile Synthesis of Ureidic Derivatives of Betulinic Acid With Antiproliferative Effects on Colorectal and Prostate Cancer Cells. Chemistry & Biodiversity. 2025 Mar 15:e202402669.
- Jameel S, Kaur L, Amin H, Bhat SA, Malik FA, Bhat KA. Design, synthesis and neuroprotective evaluation of nitrogen heterocyclic and triazole derivatives of sarracinic acid. Natural Product Research. 2025 Feb 1;39(3):405-14.
- Bashir A, Bhat SA, Manzoor MM, Bhatti F, Bhat KA, Riyaz-Ul-Hassan S. Secalonic acid F1 derived from an endophytic fungus Periconia verrucosa as a potential antimicrobial agent against Staphylococcus aureus. Journal of Applied Microbiology. 2025 May;136(5):lxaf120.
- Amin H, Kantroo HA, Mubarak MM, Bhat SA, Ahmad Z, Bhat KA. Design and synthesis of betulinic acid–dithiocarbamate conjugates as potential antifungal agents against Candida albicans. RSC advances. 2024;14(51):38293-301.
- Gani I, Sofi ZI, Kaur G, Goswami A, Bhat KA. Hemisynthesis and cytotoxic evaluation of manoyl oxide analogs from sclareol: effect of two tertiary hydroxyls & Heck coupling on cytotoxicity. Natural Product Research. 2024 Apr 13:1-0.
- Bhat SA, Ahmed QN, Bhat KA. DMSO–KOH mediated stereoselective synthesis of Z-enamides: an expeditious route to Z-enamide bearing natural products. Chemical Communications. 2024;60(1):114-7.
- Gani I, Jameel S, Bhat SA, Amin H, Bhat KA. Prenylated flavonoids of genus Epimedium: Phytochemistry, estimation and synthesis. ChemistrySelect. 2023 Feb 23;8(8):e202204263.
- Bhat SA, Bhat MY, Rather SA, Jameel S, Bhat KA, Ahmed QN. I2-DMSO Promoted Deaminative Coupling Reactions of Glycine Esters: Access to 5-(Methylthio) pyridazin-3 (2 H)-ones. Organic Letters. 2023 Mar 31;25(14):2382-7.
- Jameel S, Farooq S, Gani I, Riyaz‐Ul‐Hassan S, Bhat KA. Ultrasound‐assisted facile synthesis of Boron‐Heck‐coupled sclareol analogues as potential antibacterial agents against Staphylococcus aureus. Journal of Applied Microbiology. 2022 Dec 1;133(6):3678-89.
- Bhat SA, Bhat MY, Rather SA, Gani I, Bhat KA, Ahmed QN. Iodine and ammonium persulfate mediated activation of DMSO: an approach to N-formylation of amides and synthesis of isatins. Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry. 2022;20(42):8197-202.
- Pandit SA, Bhat SA, Rather MA, Sofi FA, Ingole PP, Bhat ZM, Thotiyl MO, Bhat KA, Rehman SU, Bhat MA. Surface active ionic liquid assisted metal-free electrocatalytic-carboxylation in aqueous phase: a sustainable approach for CO 2 utilization paired with electro-detoxification of halocarbons. Green Chemistry. 2021;23(24):9992-10005.
- Jameel S, Kaur L, Bhat SA, Malik FA, Bhat KA. Neuroprotective activity of natural products isolated from Senecio graciliflorus DC against corticosterone-induced impairment in SH-SY5Y cells. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s Archives of Pharmacology. 2021 Dec;394:2389-99.
- Bhat KA, Naseer S, Gani I, Jameel S, Amin H, Bhat SA, Gupta AP. Isolation and identification of cytotoxic and antimalarial constituents from Artemisia moorcroftiana. ChemistrySelect. 2021 Feb 4;6(5):962-7.
- Shakeel-u-Rehman Bhat KA, Lone SH, Malik FA. Click chemistry inspired facile synthesis and bioevaluation of novel triazolyl analogs of D-(+)-pinitol. Arabian Journal of Chemistry. 2019 Dec 1;12(8):3479-89.
- Lone SH, Jameel S, Bhat MA, Lone RA, Butcher RJ, Bhat KA. Synthesis of an unusual quinazoline alkaloid: theoretical and experimental investigations of its structural, electronic, molecular and biological properties. RSC advances. 2018;8(15):8259-68.
- Lone SH, Bhat MA, Lone RA, Jameel S, Lone JA, Bhat KA. Hemisynthesis, computational and molecular docking studies of novel nitrogen containing steroidal aromatase inhibitors: testolactam and testololactam. New Journal of Chemistry. 2018;42(6):4579-89.
- Shah AM, Shakeel-u-Rehman, Hussain A, Mushtaq S, Rather MA, Shah A, Ahmad Z, Khan IA, Bhat KA, Hassan QP. Antimicrobial investigation of selected soil actinomycetes isolated from unexplored regions of Kashmir Himalayas, India. Microbial Pathogenesis. 2017 Sep 1;110:93-9.
- Shakeel-u- Rehman, Latief R, Bhat KA, Khuroo MA, Shawl AS, Chandra S. Comparative analysis of the aroma chemicals of Melissa officinalis using hydrodistillation and HS-SPME techniques. Arabian Journal of Chemistry. 2017 May 1;10:S2485-90.
- Shakeel-u-Rehman, Rah B, Lone SH, Rasool RU, Farooq S, Nayak D, Chikan NA, Chakraborty S, Behl A, Mondhe DM, Goswami A, Bhat KA. Design and synthesis of antitumor heck-coupled Sclareol analogues: modulation of BH3 family members by SS-12 in autophagy and apoptotic cell death. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 2015 Apr 23;58(8):3432-44.
- Naseer S, Lone SH, Lone JA, Khuroo MA, Bhat KA. LC–MS guided isolation, quantification and antioxidant evaluation of bioactive principles from Epimedium elatum. Journal of Chromatography B. 2015 May 1;989:62-70.
- Lone SH, Bhat KA, Khuroo MA. Arglabin: From isolation to antitumor evaluation. Chemico-Biological Interactions. 2015 Oct 5;240:180-98.
- Lone SH, Bhat KA. Hemisynthesis of a naturally occurring clinically significant antitumor arglabin from ludartin. Tetrahedron Letters. 2015 Apr 1;56(14):1908-10.
- Lone SH, Bhat KA, Bhat HM, Majeed R, Anand R, Hamid A, Khuroo MA. Essential oil composition of Senecio graciliflorus DC: Comparative analysis of different parts and evaluation of antioxidant and cytotoxic activities. Phytomedicine. 2014 May 15;21(6):919-25.
Books Published:
- ‘Chemical and Pharmacological Perspective of Artemisia amygdalina’ SH Lone, KA Bhat, MA Khuroo; Springer. 2015. ISBN 978-3-319-25217-9; DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-25217-9
Awards and Honours
- Best Paper Award 2004; 2015; 2022
- CSIR-NET 2001
Students
Present Research Scholars:
- Ms Henna Amin (ICMR-SRF)
- Mr Zahid-ul-Islam Sofi (PA)
- Mr Mohammad Umar Shah (CSIR-JRF)
- Mr Mysar Ahmad Bhat (PA)
Ph D Awarded students:
- Dr Shakeel-u-Rehman (Awarded)
- Dr Haroon Mohiud-din (Awarded)
- Dr Shabir Hussain Lone (Awarded)
- Dr Syed Naseer Qadri (Awarded)
- Dr Bilal Ahmad Dar (Awarded)
- Dr Masood-u-Rehman (Awarded)
- Dr Romaisa Latief (Awarded)
- Dr Salman Jameel (Awarded)
- Dr Showkat Ahmad Bhat (Awarded)
- Dr Ifshana Gani (Awarded)
Post Doctoral Fellows:
- Dr Shabir Hussain Lone (N-PDF)
- Dr Saleem Farooq (DST-TARE Fellow)
- Dr Dar Junaid Bashir (CCRAS-PDF)
