M.Sc. (Botany),Ph.D (Botany - Taxonomy)

Medicinal Plant Botany

Dr. Indira Balachandran started her career in 1982 as Research Officer and In-Charge of the Herb Garden of Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal, a valuable ex-situ conservation site of medicinal plants. Her area of research is medicinal plant taxonomy dealing with the scientific identification, standardization and conservation of medicinal plants used in Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine. The taxonomic studies done by Dr. Indira won her the doctorate degree from University of Calicut in 1990. Her thesis titled ‘Ayurvedic Drugs and Their Plant Sources’ published by Oxford & IBH, New Delhi in 1994, serves as a reference book to Ayurvedic students, doctors and medicinal plant researchers within India and abroad. During 1988-1997, she was associated with a womens’ group ‘Shodhini’ and worked on collecting information on simple herbal remedies for womens’ common ailments and disseminating the knowledge among rural women of eight states of India. The findings of this research project were published as a book ‘Touch me, Touch me not. Women, Herbs and Healing’ by Kali for women, New Delhi, 1997. Dr. Indira Balachandran has participated and presented papers in many national and international conferences. As per the invitation from Faculty of Ayurveda, Hilversum, Netherlands, she gave a series of lectures on Ayurvedic phytotherapy. She has served as Visiting Professor in Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Japan during April-October 1999. As Project Director of the Centre for Medicinal Plants Research, she heads many projects funded by Governmental and Non governmental agencies.

• Quality standardization of Indian Medicinal Plants and preparation of monograph funded by ICMR, Govt. of India
• Characteristion of Ayurvedic medicinal plants conserved in the field gene bank funded by DBT, Govt. of India
• Large scale micropropagation and organic home-stead farming of medicinal plants in rural areas as a means of economic empowerment of rural women in three districts of Northern Kerala funded by NMPB, Govt. of India
• Improvement of Infrastructural Facilities of Arya Vaidya Sala Herb Garden, Kottakkal funded by MoEF, Govt. of India

• Recipient of National Merit Scholarship for M.Sc. Degree
• JREIM gold medal recipient for the best scientific paper presented at the First Asian Conference on Pharmaceutical Education, Research and Drug Industry held at Singapore in 1988
• Awarded the Fellowship of the International Council of Ayurveda (F.I.C.A.) in 1989
• Outstanding Young Person award of Kerala Jaycees in 1989
• Ph. D guideship in Plant Sciences (Kannur University)

Total Publications

1 Book, 54 Research papers, 40 Popular articles

Selected Publications

Rema Shree A.B., K.V. Thushar & Indira Balachandran 2006. Micromorphological studies on tree turmeric (Coscinium fenestratum (Gaertn.) Colebr. leaf - A critically endangered medicinal plant. Phytomorphology, 56 (1&2) pp. 1-7.

Raghu A.V., Geetha S.P., Gerald Martin, Indira Balachandran and P.N. Ravindran 2006. Direct shoot organogenesis from leaf explants of Embelia ribes Burm.f. – a vulnerable medicinal plant. J. Forest Research, 11(1):57-60.

Satheesh George, Tushar K.V., Udayan P.S. and Indira Balachandran 2006. Seed germination and seedling vigour of Holostemma ada-kodien. J. Tropical Medicinal Plants, 7 (1): 83-86.

Sudhakar Raja S., K.P. Unnikrishnan, P.N. Ravindran and Indira Balachandran 2005. Determination of embelin in Embelia ribes and Embelia tsjeriam-cottam by HPLC. Indian J. Pharm. Sci., 67(5): 513-522.

Udayan, P.S., Satheesh George, K.V. Tushar and Indira Balachandran 2005. Medicinal Plants used by the Kaadar Tribes of Sholayar forest, Thrissur District, Kerala. Indian J. Traditional Knowledge, 4 (2): 159-163.

Gerald Martin, S.P. Geetha, A.V. Raghu, Indira Balachandran and P.N. Ravindran 2005. Micropropagation of Holarrhena pubescens. J. Tropical Medicinal Plants, 6(1): 111–115.

Udayan, P.S., K.V. Tushar, Satheesh George and Indira Balachandran 2004. Gymnema khandalense Santapau – A rare and little known endemic red listed medicinal plant from Nilakkal forest, near Sabarimala (Western Ghats), Patthanamthitta district of Kerala. Zoos’ Print, 19 (9): 1623-1624.

Sivarajan, V.V. and Indu Balachandran 1986. A new species of Thottea Rottb. (Aristolochiaceae) with notes on the identity of T. siliquosa (Lam.) Ding Hou. Ind. J. Forestry, 8: 265-268.

Sivarajan, V.V. and Indu Balachandran 1985. Cleistanthus sankunnianus, a new species of Euphorbiaceae from India. Kew Bulletin, 40 (1) 121-123.

Sivarajan, V.V. and Indu Balachandran 1983. A new species of Curcuma from Southern India. Notes RBG Edinburgh, 41 (2) 321-323.