STAFF DIRECTORY

Staff Profile - CMPR

Dr. Indira Balachandran (Project Director)

M.Sc. (Botany), Ph.D. (Botany - Taxonomy)

Resi :0483-2742424

Mobile :09447841883


Academic profile

M.Sc. (Botany), Ph.D. (Botany - Taxonomy)


Research Experience / Expertise

Dr. Indira Balachandran started her career in 1982 as Research Officer and In-Charge of the Herb Garden of Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal, a valuable ex-situ conservation site of medicinal plants. Her area of research is medicinal plant taxonomy dealing with the scientific identification, standardization and conservation of medicinal plants used in Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine. The taxonomic studies done by Dr. Indira won her the doctorate degree from University of Calicut in 1990. Her thesis titled Ayurvedic Drugs and Their Plant Sources published by Oxford & IBH, New Delhi in 1994, serves as a reference book to Ayurvedic students, doctors and medicinal plant researchers within India and abroad. During 1988-1997, she was associated with a womens group Shodhini and worked on collecting information on simple herbal remedies for womens common ailments and disseminating the knowledge among rural women of eight states of India. The findings of this research project were published as a book Touch me, Touch me not. Women, Herbs and Healing by Kali for women, New Delhi, 1997. Dr. Indira Balachandran has participated and presented papers in many national and international conferences. As per the invitation from Faculty of Ayurveda, Hilversum, Netherlands, she gave a series of lectures on Ayurvedic phytotherapy. She has served as Visiting Professor in Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Japan during April-October 1999. As Project Director of the Centre for Medicinal Plants Research, she heads many projects funded by Governmental and Non governmental agencies.


Awards/Honours/ Recognition

  • Honoured with 'Madame Curie Award' in August 2010 by 'Shakthi', a National Movement for Women.
  • Awarded the Fellowship of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (FIAT).
  • Recipient of National Merit Scholarship for M.Sc. Degree.
  • JREIM gold medal recipient for the best scientific paper presented at the First Asian Conference on Pharmaceutical Education, Research and Drug Industry held at Singapore in 1988.
  • Awarded the Fellowship of the International Council of Ayurveda (F.I.C.A.) in 1989.
  • Outstanding Young Person award of Kerala Jaycees in 1989.
    Research Supervision

    Ph. D. produced : 3

    Ph. D. ongoing   : 2


Selected Publications

  • Rema Shree A.B., K.V. Thushar & Indira Balachandran 2006. Micromorphological studies on tree turmeric (Coscinium fenestratum (Gaertn.) Colebr. leaf - A critically endangered medicinal plant. Phytomorphology, 56 (1&2) pp. 1-7.
  • Geetha SP., Gerald Martin, Raghu AV., Lyric PS., Indira Balachandran and Ravindran PN. 2008. Optimizing culture conditions for in vitro propagation ofTrichosanthes cucumerina L.an important medicinal plant. Jour. Herbs, Spices and Med. Plants, 14 (/2); 15-28.
  • Prabhu Kumar K. M., V. S. Hareesh, Avinash A. Adsul, Indira Balachandran & Shrirang R. Yadav. 2014. A new species of Chlorophytum (Asparagaceae) from southern Western Ghats of India. Phytotaxa. 188 (5): 282–286.
  • Satheesh George, Tushar K.V., Udayan P.S. and Indira Balachandran 2006. Seed germination and seedling vigour of Holostemma ada-kodien. J. Tropical Medicinal Plants, 7 (1): 83-86.
  • Sudhakar Raja S., K.P. Unnikrishnan, P.N. Ravindran and Indira Balachandran 2005. Determination of embelin in Embelia ribes and Embelia tsjeriam-cottam by HPLC. Indian J. Pharm. Sci., 67(5): 513-522.
  • Gerald Martin, S.P. Geetha, A.V. Raghu, Indira Balachandran and P.N. Ravindran 2005. Micropropagation of Holarrhena pubescens. J. Tropical Medicinal Plants, 6(1): 111-115.
  • Jayanthi A., Remashree, A. B., and Indira Balachandran. 2008. Comparative anatomy of six species of Sida. Phytomorphology 58 (3&4) 163-172.
  • Prabhu Kumar, K. M., T. Sunilkumar, V. Sreeraj, Binu Thomas, Indira Balachandran and V.T. Antony. 2013. New species of the genus Premna L. (Lamiaceae*) from Western Ghats of India. Webbia: Journal of Plant Taxonomy and Geography. 68 (2): 127-131.
  • Sulaiman C T, Arun A, E M Ananadan, Sandhya C.R and Indira Balachandran. Isolation and identification of phytoestrogens and flavonoids in an Ayurvedic proprietary medicine using chromatographic and Mass Spectroscopic analysis. Asian pacific Journal of Reproduction 2015.4(2): 153-156.
  • Prabhu Kumar K. M., G. R. Asish, M. Sabu and Indira Balachandran. 2013. A review on Zingiberaceous herbs used in Ayurveda. Ancient Science of Life. 32(4): 261-269. 

  • "The Centre for Medicinal Plants Research functions as a pioneer institute in the area of research, education, conservation and popularisation of Ayurvedic medicinal plants."

  • "The Centre for Medicinal Plants Research functions as a pioneer institute in the area of research, education, conservation and popularisation of Ayurvedic medicinal plants."

  • "The Centre for Medicinal Plants Research functions as a pioneer institute in the area of research, education, conservation and popularisation of Ayurvedic medicinal plants."