Teachers of department of botany, St. Joseph's College, have bagged major projects - three from University Grants Commission and one from Department of Science and Technology - worth over Rs. 35 lakh, for 2012.
R.Jeyachandran is the principal investigator for a UGC project titled 'phyto-pharmocological evaluation and QSAR (quantitative structure -activity relationship) study of the bioactive principles of most critically endangered fern Pteris tripartita Sw., from south India. The second UGC project was awarded to S.Sahaya Sathish for study of the diversity and distribution pattern of mosses in eastern ghats of Tamil Nadu.
The third UGC project pertains to isolation and characterisation of opportunistic pathogens from hospitalised AIDS patients of Namakkal district and antimicrobial screening of traditional medicinal plants of Kolli Hills on opportunistic pathogens.
These projects were installed by principal Rev. Fr. A.Albert Muthumalai, during the inauguration of the department's centenary celebrations. The inaugural session witnessed signing of a memorandum of understanding between the department and K.S.Varier's Ashtanga Ayurvedics (P) Limited.
The principal exchanged the MoU documents with the executive director of the company, T.R. Sasi Varier.
