Pharmacology Research Group

Project Description

Since the beginning of human civilization, herbs have been remained an integral part of society, valued for both their culinary and medicinal properties. There is a great potential in the medicinal herbs to treat diseases, particularly those refracted to the modern medicine. World Health Organization, emphasize, particularly in the third world, where 80% of the population rely on tradition medicine, the utilization of indigenous medicinal plants in their health care system and their scientific evaluation and validation. As Hazara division and related northern areas are rich in medicinal plants and where use of traditional medicine is since time immemorial. Therefore, the Pharmacological evaluation of the local medicinal plants in order to explore the underlying mechanisms responsible for their use in the traditional medical system is the need of the time. Therefore, various plants used by the local community of Hazara division for the treatment of various cardiovascular disorders will be scientifically studied for their effects and the underlying mechanism(s). For this purpose, the plants will be selected on the basis of their Ethnopharmacological uses. The selected plants will be collected from their habitats. The shade-dried and pulverized plant material will then be subjected to extraction using suitable solvent(s). The resulting crude extracts will be phytochemically evaluated for various classes of constituents using microchemical tests and the HPLC chromatograms. Then these extracts will be screened for cardiovascular activities. The plant extracts showing good results in the preliminary pharmacological screening will be studied in detail especially the underlying mechanism(s). Moreover, the extracts will be fractionated using bioassay guided protocols and the subsequent fractions will be screened for the respective bioactivities and will also be chemically characterized. This investigation would be a valuable addition to the scientific literature of the proposed medicinal plants and may also possibly lead to identify some botanicals with combination of activities either with synergistic and or side effect neutralizing potential. 

Members

  • Dr. Abdul Jabbar  Shah (Group Leader)