Plants for human health: A Virtual talk by Dr. Vartika

  A two days career oriented workshop was organized for undergraduate and post graduate students of Life sciences by Department of Botany, Zoology and Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), SPS Govt. College, Satna, Madhya Pradesh on 2nd 3rd March, 2023. In this workshop, Dr. Vartika Jain, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Botany, Govt. Meera Girls College was invited as a special guest and speaker to talk in virtual mode on 'Plants for Human Health' on Friday, 3rd March, 2023 on the platform of Google Meet. 
    In the beginning, Chief guest of the workshop, Prof. Arun K. Pandey, Vice Chancellor of Mansarovar Global University, Bhopal said that education should create self-employment and plants useful as medicine, could be very well utilized for this purpose. Thereafter, Convener of the workshop, Prof. Shivesh Pratap Singh introduced Dr. Vartika to the audience and moderated the entire online workshop.
   Dr. Vartika discussed the importance of plants through her ppt presentation and told that there are several plants whose medicinal importance has been recognized in the traditional medicine and also been validated in the scientific studies. She gave examples of many plants namely, Aloe vera, Achyranthes aspera, Bombax ceiba, Commiphora wightii, Moringa oleifera, Murraya koenigii, Withania somnifera, Tinospora cordifolia etc. which are well-know for their several medicinal uses and pharmacological properties. Similarly, Dr Vartika also emphasized on the importance of cereals, millets, pseudocereals and pulses for providing essential nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, amino acids, dietary fibres etc. She gave examples of spices and condiments available in the Indian Kitchen which help in fat induced alteration in blood coagulation parameters as well as blood lipids. She discussed the various ways in which cultivation of medicinal plants could be a source of income generation 
     The program was attended by the participants from Govt. College Satna and appreciated by all. Dr Jain also resolved queries of the participants. In the end, Prof. Shivesh Singh extended heartfelt thanks to Dr Vartika for giving an excellent talk on a relevant topic and for motivating the students to work more on medicinal plants.