Palpu Pushpangadan (born 23 January 1944) is a former director of the

Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute "Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute", (formerly Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute) renamed in the fond memory of visionary Prime Minister of India Shri Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is an autonomous Institute ...

(TBGRI) in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. He is also a former director of the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI),

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

and Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology,

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

. He received the

Padmashri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conferred ...

Award from the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

in 2010. Born on 23 January 1944 at

Prakkulam Prakkulam is a village in Kollam district in the south west Indian state of Kerala. This village is the part of Thrikkaruva Grama Panchayat. In the 19th century, there were beaches in prakkulam for importing and exporting goods. This village is ...

Kollam district Kollam district (), (formerly Quilon district) is one of 14 districts of the state of Kerala, India. The district has a cross-section of Kerala's natural attributes; it is endowed with a long coastline, a major Laccadive Sea seaport and an in ...

in Kerala, Pushpangadan is known for his contribution to plant sciences. He has got multidisciplinary training in cytogenetics,

plant breeding Plant breeding is the science of changing the traits of plants in order to produce desired characteristics. It has been used to improve the quality of nutrition in products for humans and animals. The goals of plant breeding are to produce cro ...

, bioprospecting,

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

conservation biology Conservation biology is the study of the conservation of nature and of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. It is an int ...

ethnobiology ] Ethnobiology is the scientific study of the way living things are treated or used by different human cultures. It studies the dynamic relationships between people, biota, and environments, from the distant past to the immediate present.culture ...

ethnopharmacology Ethnomedicine is a study or comparison of the traditional medicine based on bioactive compounds in plants and animals and practiced by various ethnic groups, especially those with little access to western medicines, e.g., indigenous peoples. Th ...

and

pharmacognosy Pharmacognosy is the study of medicinal plants and other natural substances as sources of drugs. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical, and biological properties of drug ...

. He has published about 317 research papers/articles in various national and international journals, authored/edited 15 books, contributed 41 chapters in books in

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

, plant breeding, conservation biology, biotechnology, ethnobiology, ethnopharmacology and IPR, etc. Filed/Awarded 85 patents in herbal drugs/products jointly with other scientists. 15 of his patented products are already commercialized.

References

External links

*
P. Pushpangadan Model of benefit sharing

A model to fight bio-piracy
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pushpangadan, Palpu Malayali people Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering Scientists from Kollam Living people 1944 births 20th-century Indian botanists Indian agriculturalists Indian geneticists Cytogenetics