In February 2017, Dr. Hasina Yasmin, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacy attended the 4th International Congress of the Society for Ethnopharmacology in Bardoli, Surat, Gujarat, India. The Congress was organized by Uka Tarsadia University (UTU), Bardoli, Surat, India in association with Society for Ethnopharmacology, India (SFE-India) from February 23 to February 27, 2017. The theme of the 4th International Congress of Society for Ethnopharmacology, India, was “Healthcare in 21st century: Perspectives of Ethnopharmacology & Medicinal Plant Research.” The Congress began with a series of pre-conference workshops which were organized in different venues within the University campus to ascertain various technicalities related to natural product research in the Congress. More than 100 scientists across the globe shared their valuable experiences and about 450 researchers presented their research works on diverse Ethnopharmacological and medicinal plant research.
Dr. Yasmin presented her research work on `Screening of bioactive peptides and proteins from Crotalaria pallida` as a poster in the Congress. A significant rise in resistance to antibiotics increases the pressure to develop novel classes of antimicrobial compounds to fight infectious diseases. As a novel approach to control such common infections, some studies are concentrated on the screening of novel plant defense peptides with antimicrobial activities. Plant peptides are extracellular molecules that perform a variety of functions in a plant such as cell to cell communication, protein synthesis and others. Most of the peptides found in plants possess antimicrobial properties as well. Many studies described the antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and other activities of plant peptides indicating the potential use of peptides as therapeutics. Crotalaria pallida, a typical plant of the subcontinent, is a plant of Leguminosae family. In her presentation, Dr. Yasmin reported the extraction, characterization, analysis, and screening of biological activities of peptides and proteins from Crotalaria pallida in her presentation.