Associate Professor
Centre for Conservation of Natural Resources
Mail: noorunnisa.begum@tdu.edu.in
Twitter: @PlantSysTDU
Dr. Noorunnisa Begum research over the last 20 years has focused on Establishment of FRLH Herbarium and Raw Drug Repository of Medicinal Plants used in Indian System of Medicine as well as traded in the country. She has initiated virtual herbarium (http://envis.frlht.org) so that the herbarium is accessible to the wider world. She has worked on projects spanning diversified areas namely conservation, ethnobotany, study of trade of medicinal plants in India, Pharmacognosy, Climate Change, Re-visiting of MPCAs funded by MoEF, DST, NMPB, State Biodiversity Board, State Medicinal Plant Board, National Biodiversity Board, World Bank, CSR funds from industries etc. The key research area is study of botanicals as resource, their conservation as well as its utilization using modern tools.
My career is to engage with M.Sc.R and PhD students, young people interested in designing and executing innovative educational and outreach programs related to Pharmacognosy; Ethnobotany; Trade of Medicinal Plants; Conservation of Medicinal Plants; Floristics of Angiosperms and Database. She is involved in authentication service of confirming the and validating the identity of herbarium specimens and raw drug samples for various stake holders.
Selected imported projects completed are Centre of Excellence, MoEF, GoI (2002- 2017); Demand and Supply of Medicinal Plants in India (NMPB); Status and Distribution of Paris polyphylla Smith and Panax Pseudoginseng Wall. Medicinal Plants in Selected Localities in Western Districts of Arunachal Pradesh (SMPB); Threatened Flora and Fauna of Telangana (SBB-Telangana); Study of Highly Traded species – Karkatasringi (Dabur India Ltd.).
On-going Research Projects / Grants / Specific Research activities (with photos – optional)
| S.No. | State/ National/ International | Title of the Project/Programme | Sponsors | Period |
| 1. | State | Preparation of database on Medicinal & Aromatic Plants of Chhattisgarh State | State Medicinal Plant Board (SMPB), Govt. of Chhattisgarh | June 2005 to Feb.2006 |
| 2. | Union Territory | Study of Economically important Medicinal Plants of Pondicherry Region | Dept. of Horticulture, Govt. of Pondicherry | July 2003 to May 2004 |
| 3. | State | Sustainable exploitation, Conservation, Cultivation and Marketing linkages for Medicinal plants of Andhra Pradesh | By World Bank vide Govt. of Andhra Pradesh | Dec.1998 |
| 4. | State | Market study of plant raw drugs for the selection of plant species to be raised by APFDC under the Vanaspathy Vana Programme in Andhra Pradesh | Andhra Pradesh Forest Development Corporation (APFDC), Govt. of Andhra Pradesh | Dec. 1999 to June 2000 |
| 5. | National | Centre of Excellence in medicinal plants & traditional knowledge | Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India | Oct. 2002 to Oct. 2007 |
| 6. | International | Strengthening the medicinal plant resource base in India in the context of Primary Health care projects. | Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DANIDA, Govt. of Denmark | 1993 to 2004 |
| 7. | International | Demonstration project for conservation and sustainable utilisation of medicinal plants biodiversity | United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New Delhi Under Global Environment Facility (GEF) Secretariat | May 2002 to 2005 |
| 8. | Union Territory | Road map to the Medicinal Plants of Goa | Goa State Forest Department, Goa | 2010-2011 |
| 9. | National | Database of Flowering plants of Karnataka | National Biodiversity Authority, Chennai | Oct. 2012 to Mar.2013 |
| 10. | State | Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Conservation Greenery Project | Tamil Nadu Forest Department, Chennai | 2013-2014 |
| 11. | State | Status and distribution of Paris polyphylla Smith & Panax pseudoginseng Wall. Medicinal plants in selected localities in Western Districts of Arunachal Pradesh (Co-PI) | Arunachal Pradesh State Medicinal Plant Board, Arunachal Pradesh | 2013-2014 |
| 12. | State | Preparation of Checklist of Threatened Flora and Fauna for the State of Telangana (PI) | Telangana Biodiversity Board | 2015-2016 |
| 13. | CSR Project | Development and strengthening of the herbarium and Raw Drug Repository(PI) | Jivanti – Dabur, Pvt. Ltd. | 2016-2018 |
| 14. | Industry project | Study of Bottleneck and formation of galls in Pistacia integerrima(PI) | Dabur India Pvt. Ltd. | 2016-2021 |
| 15. | National | Impact of Climate Change on wild populations of medicinal plants of conservation concern (endemic, niche-specific & red listed): A Futuristic Scenario (Co-PI) | Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India | 2018-2019 |
| 16. | National | Study on Phenological Response of Endemic Plants of Western Ghats To Climate Change: Based on Herbarium records, Historical datasets & Ground trothing (Co-PI) | Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India | 2018-2019 |
| 17. | National | Development of an electronic database on medicinal plants of Andaman and Nicobar Islands(Co-PI) | NMPB, New Delhi | 2019-2020 |
| 18. | National | Revisiting of old MPCAs in West Bengal(PI) | West Bengal Forest Department | 2017-2020 |
| 19. | National | Detailed Assessment of Medicinal and Aromatic Plant (MAP) species including their collection, usage, demand, markets, price trends and life cycle, focussing on landscapes in Sikkim | UNDP | 2020-2021 |
Education:
Anchoring unique Masters by Research in Plant Systematics and also TDU – Ph.D. guide.
Outreach:
As part of Outreach she has conducted Workshops, awareness, orientation and training program on Identification of medicinal plants, raw drugs and Herbarium techniques for ISM students, Researchers, Pharmacy students, Forest Officials. She has been involved as resource persons – to teach topics related to Medicinal Plant diversity, Trade, Threats, Conservation organised etc. within TDU as well as by other institutions.
