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Palpu Pushpangadan, acclaimed works idiosyncratic and ethnobiologist, passed distant present connected Friday. He was 81.
A erstwhile Director of the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Lucknow, Dr. Pushpangadan is champion remembered for the equitable benefit-sharing exemplary betwixt the Kani tribal assemblage and the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI), Palode, of which helium was manager from 1990 to 1999. The exemplary was linked to ‘anti-fatigue’ herbal formulation Jeevani developed from the herb Trichopus zeylanicus, known locally arsenic Arogyapacha.
Dr. Pushpangadan’s probe areas spanned cytogenetics and works breeding, molecular taxonomy, conservation biology, ethnobiology and ethnopharmacology.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, successful a condolence message, said the benefit-sharing exemplary had garnered planetary attention. Dr. Pushpangadan was noted for his contributions to biology, specifically ethnopharmacology, the Chief Minister said.
Dr. Pushpangadan was calved successful Prakkulam successful Kollam territory successful 1944. Prior to his tenure astatine JNTBGRI helium worked astatine the Regional Research Laboratory, Jammu, and the Ministry of Environment and Forests, arsenic main co-ordinator of an all-India programme connected ethnobiology.
According to the JNTBGRI website, it was Dr. Pushpangadan who reorganised the institute into the plot strategy and the probe and improvement system. For a abbreviated period, helium besides held the complaint of director, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram.
He has besides served arsenic manager and Additional Secretary, Science, Technology and Environment Department, Kerala government, and manager (in-charge), Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants. Dr. Pushpangadan near the JNTBGRI successful 1999 to caput NBRI, Lucknow. From 2004 onwards, helium was manager wide of the Kerala-based Amity Institute for Herbal and Biotech Products Development successful Thiruvananthapuram.
P.G. Latha, a erstwhile Director of the JNTBGRI, remembers Dr. Pushpangadan arsenic an capable head who promoted youngsters. “Practically each the probe divisions astatine the institute were developed to planetary standards erstwhile helium was astatine the helm,” Dr. Latha, who archetypal met him successful 1990, recalled connected Friday.
A recipient of galore accolades and awards, Dr. Pushpangadan received the Padma Shri successful 2010. He was a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the Ethnobotany Society of India, and the National Society of Ethnopharmacology among others.
Dr. Pushpangadan is survived by his woman Sreedevi Pushpangadan, a gynaecologist, and Vipin Mohan Dan, elder idiosyncratic astatine the JNTBGRI.
