With diabetes and cancer on the verge of turning into epidemics, the recent discovery by 21-year-old Sumit Pawar, a final-year student of the integrated MSc course at the University of Pune’s (UoP) Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology (IBB), opens a whole new horizon in the field of medicine.

Sumit has discovered a way to extract the medicinal properties from the plant, Dioscorea bulbifera (Air potato, a species of yam), without destroying the plant and thus helping in preserving it. The plant, which is found in abundance in the forests of the Western Ghats, has been known to have medicinal properties that can help cure diabetes and cancer.

Sumit has also bagged the second prize at a poster competition at an international conference on ‘Current trends in medicinal plant research’, held on the university campus from January 10 to 12.

Speaking about the discovery, Sumit said, “In the past, the plant in its entirety has been used to extract medicines. The new discovery makes room for using the microorganisms in the plant for deducing the medicinal properties, keeping the plants intact and hence preserving them.”

Sumit’s discovery would not only help conserve the plant, but would also help in large-scale production of drugs. “Through this process, the plant’s destruction can be stopped and the production can be increased as well. The microorganisms also enable in protecting the plant from infection,” he said.

Sougata Ghosh, a PhD scholar at UoP, who was the chief instructor for the project said, “The discovery will serve a dual purpose of plant growth promotion, as well as to find an alternative to over-exploitation of medicinal plants.”

Director of the IBB, BA Chopade, who was the principal investigator of the project, said that such discoveries at UoP promote and exchange knowledge about recent developments in the field of herbal drugs throughout the globe.

“We concentrate on nurturing young talent to convert their innovative ideas into reality. The microbes after the discovery will be further investigated for producing medicinal compounds,” Chopade said.