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National Bioresource Development Board
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Honorable Finance Minister had, in his Budget Speech 1999, announced the setting up of a National Bioresource Development Board (NBDB) under the Chairmanship of the Honorable Minister of Science & Technology. In pursuance of this, the Department of Biotechnology had sought the approval of the Government for establishment of the same. The competent authority has approved the same. |
| The terms of reference of the Board will be as given below: |
- To decide the broad policy framework for effective application of biotechnological and related scientific approaches for research & development and sustainable utilization of bioresources especially for the development of new products and processes.
- To develop a scientific plan of action for contributing to the economic prosperity of the nation through accelerated research & development using the modern tools of biosciences. The scientific programmes to be undertaken under the guidance of the Board would be inter-disciplinary, inter-institutional, and time bound with clear-cut milestones. Some illustrative areas include:
- To evolve effective ex-situ conservation strategies for bioresources of potential scientific and economic value,
- To develop predictive groupings of biological resources through well-established molecular lineages,
- To construct gene maps of bioresources that can be used for locating useful genes,
- To promote the use of biological software in the management of agricultural pests and pathogens,
- To promote value addition to bioresources,
- To train human resource for the achievement of above objectives,
- To strengthen bioinformatics vis-¨¤-vis bioresources
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A National Steering Committee has been constituted to support the activities of the Board under the Chairmanship of Professor A. K. Sharma, University of Calcutta. |
| PRIORITIES |
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The first meeting of the Board held in January 2000 under the chairmanship of the Honorable Minister of Science and Technology identified three priorities: (a) preparation of digitized inventories of plant, animal, microbial, and marine resources, (b) R&D projects, programme support, establishment of Centres of excellence, training activities and demonstrations, for the development of bioresources for special areas such as north-eastern region, Himalayan region, coastal & island ecosystems, desert region, Indo-Gangetic plain and Peninsular India, (c) knowledge empowerment and human resource training would be a priority area for the Board. |
| STATUS OF ACTIVITIES |
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Three meetings of the Board, seven meetings of the Steering Committee and over forty meetings of Expert Groups have been held under the NBDB. |
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During the year 2002-2003 the National Bioresource Development Board (NBDB) expanded its activities in many ways. The Board as well as the Steering Committee were reconstituted. The Steering Committee met twice during the year. The expert committees appointed by the Steering Committee held several meetings. The NBDB has continued with its resource and region¨Cspecific approaches. In addition, the Board has also supported projects on training, capacity building and awareness generation on bioresources. The salient features of these are presented below. |
| Digital inventorisation: |
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Preparation of digitized inventories of all our important bioresources has been undertaken covering: medicinal plants, other economically important plants, animal, marine and microbial resources. Work on digitization of medicinal plants and other economically important plant resources is progressing very well. A fully functional laboratory with state-of-the-art equipments for GIS and database management has been set up at the Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur Campus, Bangalore. Data sets on 2,500 species from 194 floras have been compiled. The data is now available at a resolution of 25x25 Km grid map for the entire country. In the medicinal plant inventory data for more than 700 plants have been put into the digitized format.
Work on preparation of digitized inventory of marine resources has progressed well. The total number of species that would be inventorised is around 5,000. So far information on 3,700 species has been collected and put in the digitized format.
In the project on the inventory of microbial resources of India, data for more than 42,000 microorganisms has been collected. It is expected to include data for more than 50,000 microorganisms in the database.
Under the project on the digitized inventory of animal resources, collection and feeding of data have been taken up. All the inventories are using the same computer software.
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| Natural dyes: |
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An All-India coordinated research project on prospecting for food grade natural dyes from bioresources has been initiated, with six participating institutions. Temperate ranges of NW Himalayas and tropical areas of northern portion of Western Ghats were surveyed for collection of plant species having dye-yielding potential. As many as 106 plant species belonging to 88 genera distributed among 46 families from NW Himalaya (7000-9500 ft above m.s.l.) and 46 plant species from Northern-Western Ghats (1200 ft above m.s.l.) were collected and screened for colouring matters by chemical spot tests, chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. Using standard color index developed by the Royal Horticulture Society of Kew (London) as many as 46 colour shades were observed. Different shades of yellow, orange and green were the dominating colours. The root was found to be the major source of yellow and orange colours and green colour was mainly obtained from leaves and stems.
Colouring matter was reported for the first time from 92 plants species. Twenty five Himalayan plant species have been identified as potential sources for colouring matters that are in high demand in food processing. These include members of Lamiaceae, Rubiaceae, Polygonaceae, Ranunculaceae and Pinaceae. The colouring matters isolated from Thalictrum javanicum, Meriandra strobilifera and Rumex hastatus are suspected to be new and novel ones. Thirteen colour extracts with high tinctorial value obtained from six targeted plant species from Kerala, were also evaluated using cotton, nylon, silk, curd, cheese and butter as substrate. Some of these have potential application in textile and food processing industries.
Thelepaepala ixiocephala (Karva), a unique species of Western Ghats that flowers once in seven years, was also examined for the colouring matter. A novel yellow coloured compound was identified and purified. A number of optical isomers have been isolated from air-dried roots of Arnebia nobilis, and these may also be of therapeutic value. Culture protocols for large-scale production of Dunaliella salina and D. bardawil have been developed. Methods have been standardized for isolation of stable and high quality b-carotene. Information on distribution, habit and natural colouring matter present in 600 dye-yielding plant species from India has also been documented.
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| Botanical pesticides: |
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An All-India coordinated research project on development of environment friendly and plant-based pesticides has also been initiated during the year, with nine participating institutions. The test insects in the study are Helicoverpa armigera, Spodoptera litura, Plutella xyllostella, Bemisia tabacii, Aphis craccivora, Anopheles and Tetranychus sp. In this project, EID Parry is a partner and sponsor. Till date 172 plant/plant part samples have been collected, extracted and screened against the above-mentioned insects. Out of them 62 samples are showing positive results. The screening is done for pesticidal, larvicidal, Insect Growth Regulator (IGR), oviposition, attractant, deterrent, antifeedant and repellent activities, wherever applicable. Further, different activities of these compounds will be compared with commercial pesticides (positive control) and untreated checks. LC50 (Lethal Concentration) and LC90 (Lethal Concentration) will be calculated for the extracts showing positive results. The plant extracts indicating significant pesticidal activity will be evaluated through field-testing. A suitable eco-friendly formulation will then be developed. |
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