Munish Sharma

Central University of Himachal Pradesh · Department of Plant Sciences

Plants are known to synthesize a plethora of secondary metabolites viz., terpenoids, terpenes, flavonoids and alkaloids. Of these, alkaloids belong to a major class of phytoconstituents, which are responsible for many properties of therapeutic interest such as analgesic, antimicrobial, antimalarial, antipyretic, antihypertensive, cardioprotective,...

Plants possess a plethora of important secondary metabolites, which are unique sources of natural pigments, pharmaceutical compounds, food additives, natural pesticides, and other industrial components. The commercial significance of such metabolites/compounds has directed the research toward their production and exploration of methods for enhancem...

Corona virus is pandemic and responsible for more than 5.6 million deaths. It was observed that its severity was reported in varied ways in different countries and even in different states of India. This variation was critically evaluated in the area with high contamination of Arsenic (As) to understand the arsenic toxicity and Covid epidemiology a...

Extracts of the memory enhancing herb Bacopa monnieri are used in several commercial ayurvedic formulations for a variety of health promoting effects. Adulteration in market samples and availability of sub-standard products is one of the greatest drawbacks in promotion of herbal products from India. The most important challenge faced by herbal form...

Bacopa monnieri plant extract has been used as a nerve tonic in ancient Indian folklore since ages and bacosides are the main key component behind neuro-potential of the herb. Accumulated β-amyloid protein causes the hyperphosphorylation of tau protein which in turn is the cause of tangled nerve projections in Alzheimer's brain. However, the intera...

Under different biotic and abiotic stresses, plants exhibit rapid synthesis of nitric oxide (NO) and a parallel accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). At low concentrations, ROS and RNS act as signals for regulation of plant growth and development and also for defense against stress. Moreover, they have great potential to exhibit defensive...

Bio-active compounds, isolated from medicinal plants play a vital role in modern medicine as some of them have become very potent drugs. Although these compounds are produced and accumulated in different parts of the plants, there are many bottlenecks in getting plant-based bio-active compounds. In particular, phytocompounds are limited to a partic...

Since folklore, Bacopa monnieri commonly called as Brahmi is known for its cognitive enhancing properties. The plant is found abundantly in wetlands but the drug content (bacosides) is very low (0.2%), therefore, alternative biotechnological protocols are highly needed to supplement the constant source of this valuable plant material which produces...

The dried stigmas of saffron constitute the world's costliest spice. Saffron has many therapeutic applications due to the presence of apocarotenoids. The latter are synthesized at different stages of development, and the biosynthetic pathway involves several genes encoding different enzymes. In order to understand the differential expression of var...

Saffron is considered to be the costliest spice of the world. It has been regarded as highly valued medicinal plant in Ayurveda to treat various ailments. Over the past few years, considerable interest has developed in saffron because of its anticancer, antimutagenic, antioxidant and immunomodulatory properties. Saffron's colour, bitter taste and a...

Growing demand for the herbs and beneficial effects of number of medicinal and aromatic plants and need of conservation priority encourage research into developing efficient methods for controlled production through in vitro cultivation. Bioreactor cultivation is regarded as a strategy for realization of commercial exploitation of plant tissue cult...

Shoot cultures of Bacopa monnieri L. (Brahmi) were cultivated in shake flask (1 L) and two bioreactor systems: Growtek® (1 L) and modified bench top air lift bioreactor (ALB) (5 L). Continuous immersion and aeration supported excellent growth and enhanced levels of bacoside (A3+A2) production in ALB. Growth index (GI) in terms of dry wt was recorde...

The effect of different abiotic elicitors [jasmonic acid, copper sulphate (CuSO4) and salicyclic acid] at varying concentrations on the stimulation of biomass and bacoside production in in vitro Bacopa monnieri shoot culture was studied. A systematic study conducted over a period of 35 days indicated that the maximum bacoside production (6.74 mg g(...

A study was conducted to evaluate bacoside (expressed as sum of bacoside A3 and A2) production on a monthly basis in net house grown plants of Bacopa monnieri (accession BM001) collected from Jammu region. Bacoside content differed during the course of the whole year. The whole herb is used commercially for extracting the memory enhancing molecule-...

Bacopa monnieri (L.) Wettst. an emergent macrophyte, fast proliferating wetland species has attracted considerable attention in recent years owing to its capability of absorbing toxic heavy metals from the aquatic environment. As such plant species having dual importance need to be conserved and propagated on priority basis. A protocol was develope...