Webninar : Re-imagine Ethnopharmacology at IBSD
Date : 10 July, 2020 :: Research Institue of Science and Technology

Re-imagine Ethnopharmacology, an international webinar series organizing by Institute of Bioresources & Sustainable Development (IBSD), India in association with Society for Ethnopharmacology, India (SFE-India) and International Society for Ethnopharmacology, Switzerland (ISE)

During this Covid-19 pandemic, this unprecedented situation forced us to see the world from a completely different perspective where staying home, and digital collaborations are the new normal. We are forced to see this world from a completely new perspective to meet our daily needs.

This pandemic has also made this evident that allopathic medicines alone are not capable of serving the mankind and hence, the traditional medicines has to be more competing. To achieve this goal, acceleration of research in ethnopharmacology is inevitable.

Ethnopharmacology is the science of traditional medicine practiced by various ethnic groups since the beginning of human race. Being one of the major hubs of practicing traditional medicine, expectations from the institutes that promote the use and research in natural products and traditional medicine in India are high.

Institute of Bioresources & Sustainable Development (IBSD), Imphal, Manipur is a National Institute under Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. IBSD is working to facilitate and promote scientific research to preserve and explore the untapped plethora of medicinal plants and traditional medicinal knowledge from the rich biodiversity of our North Eastern Region of India.

The Society for Ethnopharmacology-India (SFE-India) is a non-profit organization, which is also working for the development of traditional medicine and natural products with the help of students, researchers, healers, policy makers, industrialists and those who believe in natural remedies. The SFE-India contributes to bridge the gap between the academia and industry.

The International Society for Ethnopharmacology (ISE), based in Switzerland, has been working in the same area to promote ethno medicines with its wide base throughout the world. The IBSD, SFE-India and ISE believe that in order to contribute to the society, an integrated and synergistic research approach is essential for promotion of traditional medicine and development of ethnopharmacology.

They all joined together to launch the Saturday international webinar series on “Reimagine Ethnopharmacology”; it is now running at the 10th session in this week with involvements of experts around the world.

Prof. Pulok K. Mukherjee, Director, IBSD, Imphal also President of the ISE, Switzerland and the founder Secretary to SFE-India has realized that the realignment of scientific approaches towards ethnopharmacology is the need of this hour.

Prof. Mukherjee has immensely contributed as key opinion leader for the globalization of local knowledge and localization of global technology in the research and development of ethnopharmacology and ethnomedicine. The importance of collaborative approach to rediscover the offerings of mother nature and to serve the society by providing the right medicine at the right time is very much realized now.

Redefining the promises of traditional medicine in light of rigorous scientific validation is not possible without the out-of-box thinking. Change is the only constant, and hence, redesigningthoughts are important in doing daily things. Therefore, this webinar series has immense importance to maintain the knowledge flow and exchange of ideas in redefining the values of ethnopharmacology.

The focal theme of the webinar series is “Reimagine Ethnopharmacology” and the launch of this webinar is very timely. This open-to-all series started on May 9th 2020 and will run until the end of August 2020. Webinars are hosted between 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm every Saturday to accommodate maximum time zone throughout the world so that participants throughout the world can join.

With the involvement of eminent speakers from India and abroad, the topics discussions centred on ethnopharmacology and Covid-19 has been incredibly attractive. Until now nine webinars have been successfully hosted in the series and each of the events has received tremendous support from the global audience with huge participation in each webinar, from several countries.

This webinar created a unique opportunity for the Indian researchers and scientists to interact with the stalwarts of global repute to clear their doubts with the help of useful insights from the key opinion leaders. The speakers list of this webinar series is unmatched and reflects the glimpse of the galaxy of stalwarts of natural product and ethnopharmacology from India and abroad including scientists, academicians, bureaucrats, and policy makers.

List of the speakers included
Prof. Robert Verpoorte, Natural Products Laboratory, Leiden University, The Netherlands;
Geoffrey A. Cordell, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois, United States;
Dr. Roy Upton, President, American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, United States;
Dr. Marco Leonti, Professor, Universita di Cagliari,Italy;
Prof. SouadSkalli, University Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco;
Prof. A. M. Viljoen, Pretoria University, South Africa;
Prof. Rudolf Bauer, Karl-Franzens-Universitaet Graz, Austria;
Prof. Gagandeep Kang, Executive Director, THSTI, Govt of India;
Dr. JLN Sastry, CEO, National Medicinal Plants Board, Ministry of AYUSH, Govt of India;
Dr. Ajay Parida, Director, Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Govt. of India;
Dr. Debprasad Chattopadhyay, Director, ICMR-National Institute of Traditional Medicine (NITM), Belagavi, India;
Prof. Debi P. Sarkar, Professor, Delhi University;
Dr Geetha Krishnan, Technical officer, Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine (TCI) Unit of the WHO, Geneva, Switzerland;
Shri. Shekhar Dutt, SM, IAS (Rtd), Former Governor of Chhattisgarh State, Govt. of India;
Dr. R.K. Ranjan, Hon'ble Member of Parliament, Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency (I-IMPC), Govt of India;
Dr. C. Vanlalramsanga, IES, Secretary, Planning &Programme Implementation, (Science & Technology) Department, Govt. of Mizoram;
Dr. Ram Viswakarma, Director, CSIR-IIIM, Jammu;
Shri Anurag Sharma, Joint Managing Director, BAIDYANATH, Chairman, AYUSH Industry Group at CII, MP (Lok Sabha), Govt. of India;
Dr. D. C. Katoch, Adviser (Ayurveda), Head of Drug Policy Section, Ministry of AYUSH, Govt. of India;
Mr. Birendra K. Sarkar, President, SFE-India and CEO & MD, Parker Robinson Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata;
Dr. C. K.Katiyar, Vice-president, SFE-India & CEO, Healthcare (Technical), Emami Ltd., Kolkata;
and Prof. Sitesh C.Bachar, Chairman, Dept. of Pharmacy, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Multiple areas, starting from basic science to understand Covid-19 and ethnopharmacology to the clinical practice and commercialization and global impact of this pandemic, have been touched upon in this Saturday webinar series.

The opportunities of synergistic development of bioresources of India and northeast India and how it may create value for the mankind, present scenario of Covid-19 around the globe, prevention and cure of Covid-19 and role of ethnopharmacology, support from the Government for the advancement of research in ethnopharmacology, and introduction of newer terminologies like “Cyberecoethnopharmacolomics” were some of the important topics discussed so far.

A strong global connection of Dr. Mukherjee is proving to be boon for Indian scientists and researchers of traditional medicine. This Saturday webinar series on “Reimagine Ethnopharmacology” partnership among three pivotal bodies in natural products domain would certainly facilitate the advancement of traditional medicine.

Prof. Mukherjee believes that to overcome this situation we need to maintain social bonding more than ever by practicing physical distancing. He always says, we cannot get rid of this situation soon and hence we have to start learning to live with it. We echo his voice and appreciate the efforts, dedication, and commitment of the organizing committee of this great event.

Under his leadership, an efficient team of scientists and administrators from IBSD, Imphal, SFE-India and ISE are managing this first of its kind event.

Dr. Nanocha Sharma, Mr. Rajendra K. Labala, Mr. Laishram Amitkumar, Mr. Atom Samarendra,of IBSD, Imphal;
Dr. Albert Chiang of IBSD, Shillong;
Dr.Santanu Bhadra, Dr. Subhash C. Mandal, Mr. Amit Kar,of SFE-India;
Prof. Rudolf Bauer (Austria), Dr. Roberto Saaverdra (Chile), Prof. NamritaLall (South Africa),
Prof. Michael Heinrich (UK), Mr. Fabien Schultz (Germany), Dr. Anastasia Karioti (Greece),
Prof. Marco Leonti, Secretary (Italy), Prof. Pulok K. Mukherjee, President (India)of ISE
with the involvement of all the team members of IBSD, SFE-India and ISE, this Saturday webinar is being hosted impeccably.

We would encourage everyone to join these webinars to witness the digital revolution in natural product, ethnomedicine and ethnopharmacology. Further details on the webinar schedule and how to join the upcoming webinars can be found at IBSD social media handles like Twitter, and linkedin and at the websites of IBSD (www.ibsd.gov.in)and SFE-India (www.ethnopharmacology.in).

(Akbar Mazid)
Senior Administrative Officer
IBSD, Imphal