The ‘winged beauties’ are a good indicator of the ecological health of a habitat
Butterflies are excellent communities to monitor the ecological health of a place. A team of researchers from Mangalore University, in collaboration with other two institutes, has identified and documented 43,118 butterflies (individuals) belonging to 175 species in Dakshina Kannada.
Of them, 22 species were habitat specific. The researchers were pursuing the ‘winged beauties’ for the past two years.
Yellow Pansy (Junonia Hierta)
The team comprised M. S. Mustak, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Zoology, Mangalore University and Deepak Naik, a PhD student at Mangalore University. The study was done in collaboration with Shyam Prasad Rao, a researcher at Yenepoya Deemed to be University, Mangaluru and Krishnamegh Kunte, a researcher from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru.
The butterflies were identified at eight heterogeneous landscapes ranging from coastal sand dunes to agricultural fields to botanical gardens to semi-evergreen forests on the foothills of the Western Ghats.
Sahyadri Lacewing (Cethosia Mahratta)
“Using indicator value analysis, 22 habitat-specific and several shared indicator species were identified. The study also documented larval host plants, and over 283 habitat-specific host-butterfly species pair interactions,” Mr. Mustak told The Hindu.
Their research paper – study on abundance and habitat preference of butterflies of the Western Ghats – has now been accepted for publication by the Journal of Insect Conservation, an international journal devoted to the conservation of insects and related invertebrates.
Shiva Sunbeam (Curetis Siva)
The researchers said that butterfly communities indicate the type and state of a habitat, and can easily be conserved by the restoration of habitats with diverse host plants. They have great public appeal and easy to work with, and are the indicators of a healthy ecosystem.
Mr. Mustak said, “People usually cherish abundant and widely distributed butterflies, but fail to appreciate less common or habitat-specific species. Our study gives quantitative data on the butterflies of the Western Ghats, which is essential for public awareness and outreach.”
Malabar Tree Nymph (Idea Malabarica)
The team conducted a systematic transect survey for two years to get baseline data on the abundance patterns and habitat preferences of butterflies of the Western Ghats. The study gives an important dataset for future assessment, monitoring and conservation of butterflies of the Western Ghats.
Sahyadri Birdwing (Troides Minos)
The study showed interesting patterns. Some of the most abundant species are Common Crow (Euploea Core), Common Emigrant (Catopsilia Pomona), Common Four Ring (Ypthima Huebneri), Tawny Coster (Acraea Terpsicore), Lesser Grass Blue (Zizina Otis), Rustic (Cupha Erymanthis), and Chocolate Pansy (Junonia Iphita)
Blue Oakleaf (Kallima Hosfieldii)
Some species, though very abundant, are restricted to specific habitats. For example, Tawny Coster (Acraea Terpsicore) is common in coastal regions, Common Bush Hopper (Ampittia Dioscorides) in found in agricultural habitats, and Malabar Tree Nymph (Idea Malabarica) in semi-evergreen forests. Some species, such as Common Mormon (Papilio Polytes) and Common Leopard (Phalanta Phalantha), though rare, are found everywhere.
Tree Flitter (Hyarotis Adrastus)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Mangaluru / by Raviprasad Kamila / Mangaluru – December 04th, 2021
Abdul Khadar Nadakattin, was on Tuesday named among the winners of the Padma Shri award.
He is an innovative farmer from Annigeri town in Dharwad district. Being a mechanic by hobby, he developed an interest in agriculture in his inherited land of 60 acres falling in dry area.
His experiments started with planting mango, sapota with intercrops like chilli and ber in the 1980s. His innovative ideas turned into reality in 1994 when he developed a device to separate tamarind seeds from the pulp after spending Rs 3 lakh and six months. In one day, this device can carry out the work equivalent to 500 labourers per day.
Nadakattin started innovating in 1974 soon after he left school as he could not get up early in the morning and his father wanted him to become a farmer. At that time, he had developed a kind of bullock drawn tiller capable of deep plouging in which whetting was not needed. He also invented a multi–purpose sowing machine in 1985.
He established Vishwashanthi Agricultural Research and Industrial Research Centre in 1975.
Now agricultural equipment named after ‘Nadakattin’ are famous across the country.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Hubballi News / by TNN / January 26th, 2022
Bagged State Biodiversity Board’s Custodian of Traditional Knowledge Award
Kerala State Biodiversity Board has conferred their award for the year 2019-20 for“custodian of traditional knowledge/ citizen scientist” to Sri. Salim Pichan, an employee of MSSRF.
The award is given to persons who have an excellent track record in biodiversity conservation, environment protection and traditional knowledge.
As a zealous para taxonomist, Mr Salim Pichan accrued the knowledge pertaining to the plants, uses and modalities of its applications through his association with traditional healers and tribal communities over a period of two decades. Mr Salim Pichan, a person with intermediate qualification has first become a lover of nature then a para taxonomist and eventually a custodian of traditional knowledge!
This is what his life’s journey is all about.
He has contributed to the discovery of eight new species of plants to science, seven new plant records to Kerala and has also published several books and articles.
As a dedicated conservationist, his 30 cents of land is protecting 300 plant species, of which 100 of them belong to the Rare Endemic and Threatened (RET) category.
A collection of Ceropegia, a unique climber is what makes his garden exceptional along with protection of 11 species in addition to 130 numbers of Orchids, 13 numbers of Dioscorea spp and 123 numbers of medicinal plants.
Most of these plants are collected from different forests and vegetation types across the state and are carefully protected with utmost care.
Many awards and recognitions have reached him in the past as well with the notable ones including Vanamithra award by Kerala State Government in the year 2012 and Swami Vivekananda Yuvaprathibha Puraskaram in 2015, Wayanad District Youth Award in 1998.
To honour his efforts in biodiversity conservation, some taxonomists also named a plant endemic to the Western Ghats as a tribute with his name Seidenfadenilla salimii.
source: http://www.mssrfcabc.res.in / M S Swaminathan Research Foundation / Home> News Room / July 30th, 2021
The efforts by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to enter the Urban Local Bodies has finally yielded result with its candidate winning in Hosapete City Municipal Council in the newly formed Vijayanagara district.
In the elections held to 58 urban local bodies (ULBs) in 20 districts of the State, the AAP secured the lone seat at Hospet with its candidate Shaikh Shah Wali winning in ward no. 22 of Hosapete CMC.
Mr. Wali secured 703 votes and registered a win against the Congress candidate by a margin of 71 votes. Among other candidates in the fray, three Independents secured 381, 359, and 293 votes respectively, pushing the BJP candidate, with 61 votes, to the last position.
While there were 4,515 voters in the ward, only 61% (2,759) voted. Mr. Wali secured 25% (703 votes) of the votes cast.
Mohammad Nasir, a local AAP member, told The Hindu that Mr. Wali, who belongs to the semi-nomadic tribe Helavaru, was chosen by community elders to contest as the AAP candidate largely because development issues in their area were ignored.
Successive governments have neglected the Helavaru community. Due to the alleged failure of the State Government in providing facilities and amenities to the tribal community, they decided to vote collectively for the AAP candidate, he said.
A farmer, Mr. Wali joined the AAP eight months ago.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Staff Reporter / Kalaburagi – December 31st, 2021
The 20 youths held a meeting a fortnight ago to survey how many among the Hindu community in their locality needed garments.
A member of the Muslim community hands over new clothes to a needy Hindu villager in Lodda, Bankura / Rupesh Khan
A group of Muslim youths at remote Lodda village in Bankura district on Sunday gifted new clothes to around 400 poor Hindu families after they held a survey on how many villagers could not buy any for Bengal’s biggest festival.
The 20 youths, mostly farmers and small traders, held a meeting a fortnight ago to survey how many among the Hindu community in their locality needed new clothes.
“Most of the Hindu families in our area are poor. We visited the homes to see if they were able to buy new clothes for their family members. Many could not. So we took details like age and gender of the family members, including children, as these were important before purchasing dresses. We distributed the clothes on Sunday,” said Sheikh Bapi, a member of the Lodda Muslim Yuva Sampradai that organised this event.
On Sunday, during a cultural programme at the village grounds, the members handed over new clothes to those who had enlisted their names.
“We believe in amity and here both Hindus and Muslims live like brothers. We also celebrate our festivals together. For us, religion is a personal affair but festivity is for all,” said Sheikh Mojammel, a member.
The youths said that to buy the new clothes they pooled their own money and from other philanthropic villagers to raise Rs 1 lakh. With this, they brought new clothes for the 400 families, including around 50 children and 200 women.
Bablu Bauri, whose elderly parents, wife and child received new clothes from the Lodda Muslim Yuva Sampradai, said he was in deep financial crisis and was in no position to buy clothes.
“I am a daily wage earner and used to work as a mason’s helper here. I have not been earning regularly since the pandemic started. I had no money to buy new clothes for my family during Durga Puja this year,” Bablu said, thanking organisers for the gesture.
Lodda is a village in Khalagram gram panchayat in Taldangra block area of Bankura. The village is the only one in the area with a sizeable Muslim population. The village has around 400 Muslim families, most relatively better-off.
In Bankura district, the Muslim population is only 8.08 per cent as per 2011 census.
This is not the first time that the Muslim youths have come forward to help needy Hindu families. During the lockdown, they helped villagers who had lost their jobs with dry ration like riceand pulses.
“When there was partial lockdown or curbs during the second wave of the pandemic we used to serve cooked food to the needy families,” added one of the youths of the group.
The organisers said they will continue similar drives in the future too.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online Education / Home> West Bengal / by Snehamoy Chankraborthy / Bolpur (Birbhum) / October 12th, 2021
A team of naturalists participating at a forest department survey | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A new species of fruit fly discovered for the first time has been named after Siruvani in the Western Ghats
A fruit fly has created a buzz with its maiden show in Siruvani, a biodiversity hotspot of the Western Ghats. It turns out to be a new species that has been reported, named, and documented for the first time ever. The fruit fly is now scientifically named as Euphranta siruvani, after the place where it was first collected.
A research student at Annamalai University, H Sankararaman, first spotted this unusual visitor on a light trap which he had set up to capture moths at a non-forest space near Siruvani. “The fruit fly was attracted towards light and I was lucky enough to have spotted it. It has a distinct V-shaped black band on its forewing,” recalls Sankar.
The discovery now appears in Zootaxa journal in a paper authored by David K J and Sachin, K, ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), Bengaluru, DL Hancock from the UK, Sudhir Singh from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun and H Sankararaman from Annamalai University. According to David, there are 104 recognised species in the genus Euphranta that are distributed across the world. “Of this, 14 are recorded so far from India. The discovery of Euphranta siruvani is the brand-new addition to the checklist.”
“This fruit fly is a rare species and a valuable addition to the diversity,” says David K J, scientist at ICAR-NBAIR, one of the National Institutes with several taxonomists of international repute. “We first check with the regional/world catalogue, then refer to available literature, and connect with authorities around the world over mail before confirming it as a new species,” explains David.
A species can be named after the ‘type locality’ (the place from where the holotype was collected), a specific characteristic feature, after the collector or after an eminent taxonomist for his contributions. In this case, they chose the place, a thriving ecosystem of rich fauna and flora and also the source of drinking water for Coimbatore.
Apart from the fruit fly, additionally a brand new fairy fly species was found at Siruvani. The species Omyomymar hayati is named after Professor Mohammad Hayat of Aligarh Muslim University for his contributions to insect taxonomy.
“I have described several species after the type locality for example Acidoxantha galibeedu in 2014 based on specimen collected near Coorg. Later, I had collected the same species from other parts of Karnataka and Kerala. Similarly, may be the E.siruvani can be seen across the Western Ghats and Kerala in South India. We have to study further to understand its distribution,” explains David, who has identified and described 28 new species of fruit flies of India.
The genus Euphranta comprises many fruit/seed infesting species, including Euphranta cassiae that feeds on the pods of Kanikonna (Cassia fistula) trees. “There are 5,000 species of fruit flies across the world. In India, we have nearly 290 species so far; we keep adding to the list.”
K D Prathapan, an expert on beetles, who works at Kerala Agricultural University, says fruit flies have an average lifespan of three to four weeks. “By infesting fruits, they damage the reproductive capacity of plants. Some species breed in bamboo shoots. And then there are cucurbit fruit flies that are pests of cucurbits such as cucumber, gourds, and pumpkins.”
The study of fruit flies is important for the agricultural economy, as they infect mangoes, melons, gourds, and guavas, says Sankararaman. “It lays eggs in fruits and the larvae feed on the pulp. We are yet get insights about the biology of the species discovered in Siruvani.”
K Mohan Prasath, founder of Act for Butterflies, says there are also many parasitic insects that are helpful to farmers in pest control. Mohan and his team have compiled a list of over 1,000 species of moths across Tamil Nadu and plan to bring it out in a book form soon. “We hope such discoveries build interest in entomology that covers insects, butterflies, and moths. Identification of new species is especially relevant now as there is habitat destruction of many species because of climate change.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Environment / by K Jeshi / January 12th, 2021
A faculty member of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), in association with German researchers, has discovered a new protein in plants that will ‘improve the salt stress tolerance of crops.’
This will enable farm land with high salinity soil amenable to cultivation.
Dr Tariq Aftab, assistant Professor, Department of Botany, AMU, together with other collaborators from Germany, have identified a new protein and named it ‘HvHorcH’.
This protein plays an important role in conferring salt stress tolerance in barley plants. Salt stress tolerance of crop plants is a trait with increasing value for future food production.
According to an official release from AMU, the research work has been carried out at Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben, Germany during the assignment to Dr Aftab as visiting scientist.
After several years of further studies and repeat trials, the report has been published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
Dr Aftab said that the identification of this protein will open new horizons in developing stress-resilient crop plants. “Global climate change, which is predicted to be accompanied by prolonged and intensified drought periods, is likely to aggravate this situation even further.
Intensified irrigation attempts to combat drought ultimately increase soil salinity and thus eventually impede farmland cultivation when salinity reaches threshold levels that can no longer be tolerated by crop plants.
“It is therefore an eminent goal for a global sustainable food supply to improve the salt stress tolerance of crop plants in order to push these thresholds of soil salinity upwards so that more farmland with high-salinity soil will still be amenable to agriculture,” he explained.
Fish, which usually was found on the table during the dinner or lunch of coastal people has now been presented in the form of a crispy eatable which can become a regular item along with tea. The fish chakkuli (chakli) made by four women has succeeded in winning over the hearts of the fish lovers.
Savitri H S, Shaheeda Begum, Naseema an Harishiya, members of Samagra Sanjeevini self-help group of Layila, Beltangady taluk, have sold about 45 kg fish chakkuli during the last 18 days. They sell four varieties of fish chakkuli, i.e. Palak, pepper, Khara and ordinary (saada). Shaheeda Begum and Naseema said they have prepared products like Koduble, Happalam, Sandige and other products by using fish.
Speaking to Daijiworld.com, Savithri said, “We underwent training from August 23 to 28 at Fisheries College. NABARD, Fisheries College, Bharathiya Vikas Trust, Manipal helped us a lot to take up the manufacturing of fish snacks. From September 1, we started with an investment of Rs 25,000. So far, in the last 22 days, we have prepared around 60 kg fish snacks.”
Savitri said that this value added product can be kept for 45 to 50 days and they do not spoil.
Customers who have purchased the fish snacks said that the chakkuli gives the taste of eating the fish itself.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / Daijiworld.com / Home> Top Stories / by Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (SP) / September 24th, 2021
Ruler of Oman, Sultan Qaboos bin Said has honoured Dr. M.I.H.Farooqi, with an award of US$ 25,000 (Rs 12 lakh) in appreciation of his books Plants of the Quran and Medicinal plants in the Traditions of Prophet Mohammad.
Both the books contain scientific descriptions of plants mentioned in the Qu’ran and Sunnah .
Dr. Farooqi is a well-known Lucknow-based plant chemist with more than 125 research papers to his credit, published in Indian and foreign journals.
He is also the author of several books and more than hundred articles in English, Hindi and Urdu on science subjects of common interest like environment, modern technology, medicinal plants, economic plants, Islamic science and Prophetic Medicine.
Plants of the Quran has been translated and published in several languages including Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Kannada, Malayalam and Indonesian languages. Based on Quranic and Prophetic Plants, UNESCO has approved Multimillion Dollars Project of Quranic Botanical Gardens in the Gulf countries.
Works on the establishment of such gardens in Sharjah and Qatar have already started.
(Dr. MIH Farooqi may be contacted at mihfarooqi[@]gmail.com)
source: http://www.milligazette.com / The Milli Gazette / Home> News> Focus / by The Milli Gazette / March 26th, 2011
This is the eleventh part of the series called `Scientist Says’ where we bring for our readers the significant contributions of young scientists in various fields.
Dr. Mohammed Ataur Rahman completed his B.Sc (H) & M.Sc., chemistry from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi in the year 2003-2008.
Dr. Rahman started his research journey in the year 2009 with Dr. Jhillu Singh Yadav ( Bhatnagar fellow and former Director of CSIR-IICT) group in Semiochemical division.
After completing his Ph.D in the year 2015 December, he joined as a Research Scientist in one of the pharmaceutical companies in Hyderabad. In the year 2016, he was conferred with Postdoctoral position in the group of Professor Andrew G. Myers, at CCB-department, Harvard University, Boston, USA. He worked with Professor Andrew G. Myers from August 2016 to July 2019. In the year 2019 September, he joined New York University, Abu Dhabi, UAE as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Professor Alan Richard Healy.
Currently, he is working on Asymmetric Synthesis and its application to synthesize Polyketide natural products. Dr. Rahman has published 15 research papers in reputed international scientific journals and he is sharing inventorship in three international patents.
He shares his significant research works with Rashida Bakaitof India Tomorrow. Here are the excerpts of the interview.
Q. Please briefly explain your research.
Ans. My scientific journey began at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad. At IICT, my initial research began with the development of eco-friendly cost-effective pest-control method to control the pests in the agricultural field as an alternate method of pest control. These eco-friendly pest-controlled method is called as “Pheromone Technology’’. The “Pheromones” are the mixture of chemicals which are released by the male insect to attract the female partner for mating. The whole idea for this technology was to mimic the exact blend ratio of the particular pheromone compound which is released by the male insect and replacing it with artificial pheromones. With the help of artificial pheromones, the female partner of the insect is attracted and is trapped by specially designed trappers. We have developed pheromones for different types of crops such as sugar cane, cardamom, coconut, brinjal, tomato, paddy, ground nuts, cotton etc. This technology is very popular among farmers in South India especially in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamilnadu and Kerala.
But my PhD topic was different from the above Pheromone work. I started my Ph.D, with Dr. Jhillu Singh Yadav, he was the former director of my institute, CSIR-IICT. The topic of my Ph.D was – total synthesis of biologically active natural products- especially macrolide natural product, which is a potent class of compound having several distinct biological activities such as anti-cancer, anti-biotics, anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressants etc. My research was focused on the discovery of new synthesis routes for macrolide anti-biotics. During my Ph.D. I have synthesized more than five different macrolide natural products which are quite useful entities for antibiotics, which can be further studied to find new drug candidates.
Q. What was the objective of your research on natural products?
Ans. The objective of my research was to learn the nature of macrolide natural product and its chemistry for the discovery of new class of compounds which can be a potential antibiotic. In the year 2016, I joined Professor Andrew G. Myers research group as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the department of chemistry and chemical biology, Harvard University. It helped me to learn more about the biological applications of macrolide. Professor Myers was working on discovery of new macrolide antibiotics, which would be effective against gram positive and gram-negative pathogens. As we all know that Azithromycin is the commercial antibiotics which is mostly used against gram-positive pathogens. The main drawback for the antibiotics is that the bacteria develop its resistant mechanism against the drugs. Therefore, we have to come up with a new drug candidate to kill the resistant bacteria. Keeping these things in mind Professor Myers have set up a Macrolide Pharmaceutical company to study & discover a new class of macrolide antibiotics which can be effective against gram-positive as well as gram-negative pathogens. In 2016, I joined as one of the members of forty scientists who are working on this project. In the span of eight years, the Myers group have synthesized approx. 2100 of new macrolides. Out of 2100 new macrolides, we were lucky to find 100 best drug candidates which successfully passed the phase II clinical trials. I have synthesized over 150 new analogues of macrolides and three compounds out of 150 analogues showed best results. There are five patents for this work and I am sharing inventorship in two patents.We are hoping that this will be the future antibiotics.
Q. When did you begin and complete your research on natural products?
Ans. I started my doctoral research on natural products in the year 2009. In 2011, I registered my Ph.D in AcSIR- Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research at CSIR-IICT, Hyderabad, under the supervision of Dr. Jhillu Singh Yadav. I completed my Ph.D degree in the year December 2015.
Q. Can you please list some of the findings of your research works?
Ans. The findings for both the research works are as below:
As we all know chemical pesticides used in agriculture are very toxic and are not ecofriendly as it kills all kinds of insects. Pesticides also contaminate the fruits and vegetables. Long term use of such chemical pesticides will make land infertile and make nitrogen fixation slow. Therefore, to overcome those environmental issues, the new Pheromone Technology is developed. Pheromone Technology is an ecofriendly method to trap the insects. It is insect specific therefore, it does not disturb those insects which are beneficial to plant for pollination such as honey bee, butterfly, etc. Therefore, with the help of this technology farmers are growing healthy crops in some parts of South India.
We all know currently, at least 700,000 people die each year due to drug-resistant diseases, including 230,000 people who die from multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. More and more common diseases, including respiratory tract infections, sexually transmitted infections and urinary tract infections, are untreatable. Lifesaving medical procedures are becoming much riskier, and our food systems are increasingly precarious. Therefore, the newly discovered macrolide antibiotics will be a potential candidate to reduce the death rate due to multidrug-resistant organisms.
Q. What was the conclusion of your research on antibiotics?
Ans. The molecular mass of macrolide antibiotic “Azithromycin” is high, more than 650, therefore, it’s very hard for the molecule to penetrate the bacterial cell. The bacterial cell wall consists mainly of peptidoglycan (PG), a mesh of polysaccharide strands. Therefore, it’s very hard for Azithromycin to penetrate the bacterial cell to stop its protein synthesis. To overcome with these issues, we have synthesized new macrolide antibiotics with lower molecular mass by keeping intact its biological activity. The smaller molecular mass macrolide penetrates the bacterial cell and stops the protein synthesis there. Our newly discovered macrolide antibiotic worked successfully against the gram-negative and gram-positive pathogens. I hope that in future, the Macrolide Pharmaceuticals formulates its own molecules as new candidates of antibiotics which will work against the broad spectrum of resistant pathogens which are life threatening.
Q. Any scholarships or awards for your research?
Ans. I received funding from department of biotechnology, New Delhi, India for Ph.D (2009-2015) and Project Associateship. In 2016-2019, I was awarded scholarship from the Harvard University, Boston, USA. Currently, I am working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and I am receiving scholarship from New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Q. What challenges did you face?
Ans. Doctor of philosophy is a long process, it requires a lot of patience and motivation. This journey will never be smooth, we have to motivate ourselves by being positive. I started my research in natural product chemistry. Natural products are chiral molecules, their synthesis involved multiple steps and therefore, designing a synthetic route to achieve the target, selection of right reagent and condition for chiral functional group transformation is very important. In multi-step synthesis, designing a feasible synthetic route, choosing right condition, optimizing synthetic plan of each step with best knowledge of literature reports, revising the synthetic plan is very important. Sometimes, ideas would fail and new strategies needed to be designed to proceed and solve issues. Initially, I had a lot of failure reactions which demotivated me but “be positive’’ attitude helped me a lot to achieve my goals and I could finish more than five natural products’ synthesis during my Ph.D.
Q. How do you think your research works would be beneficial to the industry or society?
Ans. We all know chemistry exists everywhere, human life depends on chemistry. Chemistry has its own subclass organic, inorganic, material, polymer, agricultural, pharmaceuticals etc., each class of chemistry has its own importance for the society. Here, I am talking about my perspective of chemistry, organic chemistry and its synthesis. Organic synthesis has its own benefits for the society with its application ranging from pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, pheromone chemicals, pesticide industry, dyes, cosmetics, high energy material which are used in defence sector, making diagnostic tools for sugar monitoring, high technology materials used in mobiles, computer and sensors and in aerospace etc.
The pheromone technology is an ultimate application to control the pests in the agricultural field. It is a green technology, eco-friendly, cost-effective and most reliable. These technologies are widely used worldwide. The pheromone techniques are quite popular in the Europe and America.
The current development on macrolide antibiotics, by our team at Myers Lab in collaboration with Macrolide Pharmaceuticals, will help the society to manage the antibiotic crisis in the coming decade. As per my personal observation, after COVID-19, the next health crisis would be due to antibiotics, and this would be a result of the excessive misuse of antibiotics. It develops its own resistant mechanism and restrict the effectiveness of antibiotics.
Q. Any new research you are working on now? Ans. After completion of post-doctoral study from Harvard University, I joined New York University, Abu Dhabi, UAE as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Professor Alan Richard Healy, in the year 2019. My current research focuses on asymmetric synthesis and I am working on finding the new asymmetric methods for the carbon-carbon, carbon-nitrogen, carbon-oxygen and carbon-halogen bond formation. These methods and its synthetic tools will be used for the synthesis of polyketide such as macrolide natural product as a clinical candidate for antibiotics. Our main aim is to use our own developed chemistry and apply them for synthesis of polyketide natural product. After developing these methods, we will use our chemistry to automate the synthesis as the nature does, like biosynthetic pathways.
Q. How do you think your research can be carried forward? Ans. Organic synthesis is an art of science. It creates new materials. We all know chemistry exists everywhere, human life totally depends on chemistry. Chemistry has its own subclass and each class is very important for the society. Here, I am talking about Organic Chemistry and its synthesis. Organic synthesis in general has its own advantages for the society with its applications, ranging from pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, pheromone chemicals, pesticide industry, dyes, cosmetics, high energy materials which is used in defense sector, making diagnostic tools for sugar monitoring. My new finding of new class of macrolides can be studied further to address the real crisis of antibiotics in future.
Q. Please give few suggestions to the budding scientists.
Ans. Research is a continuous journey. We have to keep ourselves motivated to achieve goals and reach our destination. We have to be ready to accept the real scientific challenges and try to solve and address those issues. My advice to the young scientists is to be positive and keep learning new scientific techniques which will help answer problems. You have to read a lot and keep yourself updated with the current literature and findings. Do not be upset with the failures, as failures also teach you. All the best for the budding scientist.
source: http://www.indiatomorrow.net / India Tomorrow / Home> Education > Featured / by Rashida Bakait / June 09th, 2021
