The Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums (acronym IINRG), formerly known as the Indian Lac Research Institute, is an autonomous institute, established under the umbrella of

Indian Council of Agricultural Research The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous body responsible for co-ordinating agricultural education and research in India. It reports to the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture. Th ...

(ICAR) by the

Ministry of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister ...

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, ...

for advanced research on lac and other natural resins and

gums The gums or gingiva (plural: ''gingivae'') consist of the mucosal tissue that lies over the mandible and maxilla inside the mouth. Gum health and disease can have an effect on general health. Structure The gums are part of the soft tissue lin ...

. The Institute is located at

Namkum Namkum is a community development block (CD block) forming an administrative division in the Ranchi Sadar subdivision of Ranchi district in the state of Jharkhand. Geography Namkum is located at 23°21'N 85°22'E. Namkum CD block is locate ...

, Ranchi in

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . I ...

, India.

Profile

The Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums (IINRG) was originally established as ''Indian Lac Research Institute (ILRI)'' for acting as a nodal agency for the research and development of lac and other natural resins and gums on 20 September 1924. The Institute was mandated to focus its attention on crop harvesting and tapping, produce processing, development of products, training, information repository, technology dissemination and liaison with other national and international agencies. IINRG owes its origin to the recommendations of Lindsay- Harlow Committee, appointed by the erstwhile Imperial Government of India, in 1920, to study the various aspects of

lac Lac is the resinous secretion of a number of species of lac insects, of which the most commonly cultivated is ''Kerria lacca''. Cultivation begins when a farmer gets a stick that contains eggs ready to hatch and ties it to the tree to be infes ...

in the country. On the suggestions of the Committee, Indian Lac Association for Research, a consortium of lac merchants in India was formed. The ''Indian Lac Research Institute'' was started by the Association on 20 September 1920. In 1931, the institute was moved under a newly constituted Indian Lac Cess Committee (ILCC). Later, when the ''Indian Lac Cess Committee (ILCC)'' was formed as per the findings and recommendations of the Royal Commission on Agriculture, the institute was transferred to ILCC on 1 August 1931. ILCC was given the control of the ''London Shellac Research Bureau'', UK and ''Shellac Research Bureau and Polytechnique Institute of Brooklyn'', USA as well. The status remained in the post-independence India till 1966 when the

took over the reins of the Institute on 1 April 1966, becoming one of the earlier institutes under ICAR umbrella. On 20 September 2007, the institute was renamed as the Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums (IINRG) and was given an expanded mandate to cover all the natural resins and gums of Indian origin.

Divisions

The activities of the Institute is primarily handled by three divisions, each entrusted with specific tasks.

Lac Production Division

LPD is involved in the research on improvement of production technologies of lac for which it focuses on the improvement of host plants and insects. It maintains a ''Lac Host and Lac Gene Bank'' and a biotechnology laboratory specifically for this purpose. Lac insect genetic stocks and host plant

germplasm Germplasm are living genetic resources such as seeds or tissues that are maintained for the purpose of animal and plant breeding, preservation, and other research uses. These resources may take the form of seed collections stored in seed banks, t ...

s are characterized so that the ideal insect/host plant combination may be selected for developing effective production technologies.

Process and Product Development Division

PPD Division is a later entrant into IINRG and is engaged in the research of processing and value addition processes of natural resins and gums. It attends to the various stages of value addition at the raw, semi-finished and finished natural resins and gums and is an accredited laboratory for the collection, analysis, testing and reporting of lac and lac based products. The Division is ISO-9001 certified and hosts a ''Processing and Demonstrating Unit'' with pilot plants for research, refinement, training and demonstration, aimed at entrepreneurial requirements.

Transfer of Technology Division

The Transfer of Technology division is the knowledge bank of IINRG and is responsible for the assessment, refinement and dissemination of the research knowledge as well as imparting training to the farmers and other interested parties on the subject. It also maintains a ''Lac Museum'', displaying a comprehensive range of exhibits ranging from samples from different parts of the world, various technologies, uses of lac in industries such as cosmetics, wool dyeing, medicines and jewellery making.

Facilities

IINRG maintains advanced facilities for the research such as: Biotechnology lab: Undertakes research and testing work on molecular and plant tissue culture and imparts training to scientists and students. Field Gene Bank: A repository for germplasm which has been recognised by ''National Bureau of Plant Genetics Resources'' as ''National Active Germplasm Site''. IINRG also has a modern conference hall for conferences, seminars and training sessions.

Projects

IINRG is involved in many core in-house projects such as ''Productivity and Quality Improvement'', ''Crop Production System Management'', ''Processing, Storage and Quality Management'', ''Value Addition, Application Development and Product Diversification'', ''Capacity Building of Farmers and Entrepreneurship Development'' and ''Technology Evaluation, Refinement, Dissemination and Demonstration'' and a set of NAIP projects such as: * To understand the nature of diversity in lac insects of Kerria spp. in India and the nature of insect x host interaction (NAIP- Component -4 ) * A value chain on lac and lac based products for domestic and export markets. (NAIP- Component -2) * Developing sustainable framing models for prioritized micro water shed in rainfed area in Jharkhand with BAU, Ranchi. (NAIP Component-3) The externally funded projects at IINRG are: * Production of summer kusmi broodlac on kusum for promotion of lac cultivation in Gujarat with farmer's participation. (Forest Department, Silva Division, Gujarat) * Climate change and lac crop performance * Lac cultivation and processing unit establishment. * FQ 3029 (NFBSFARA sponsored) * Jute based bio-composites for industry

National Network Project

IINRG is the ''Lead Coordinating Centre'' among 7 centres, for the ''National network Project for Harvesting, Processing and Value Addition of Natural Resins and Gums''. The main objects of research are

rosin Rosin (), also called colophony or Greek pitch ( la, links=no, pix graeca), is a solid form of resin obtained from pines and some other plants, mostly conifers, produced by heating fresh liquid resin to vaporize the volatile liquid terpene comp ...

s (Pinus roxburghii),

guar gum Guar gum, also called guaran, is a galactomannan polysaccharide extracted from guar beans that has thickening and stabilizing properties useful in food, feed, and industrial applications. The guar seeds are mechanically dehusked, hydrated, mil ...

(Cyamopsis tetragonoloba),

karaya gum Gum karaya or gum sterculia, also known as Indian gum tragacanth, is a vegetable gum produced as an exudate by trees of the genus ''Sterculia''. Chemically, gum karaya is an acid polysaccharide composed of the sugars galactose, rhamnose and galact ...

(Sterculia urens),

gum Arabic Gum arabic, also known as gum sudani, acacia gum, Arabic gum, gum acacia, acacia, Senegal gum, Indian gum, and by other names, is a natural gum originally consisting of the hardened sap of two species of the ''Acacia'' tree, '' Senegalia se ...

(Acacia Senegal) and guggul (Commiphora mukul). It is also involved in the preparation of agroforestry models on resins and gums.

Publications

IINRG has brought out several publications of which some of the notable ones are: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Ebooks on Natural Resins & Gums * Natural Resins & Gums of commercial importance - At a glance * Descriptors of lac insect with special reference to Kerria Spp. * Lac Culture Operations * Physico-chemical properties of some Indian plant gums of commercial importance

References

External links

on ICAR web site

on YouTube

on ASTI

on Research Gate
{{authority control Agroecology Agricultural research institutes in India Research institutes in Jharkhand Indian Council of Agricultural Research Forestry research Forestry in India 1924 establishments in India