Department of Botany - About the Department

• Disseminate the knowledge on plants and their need to the society.
• To develop feasible strategies in plant sciences for obtaining sustainable benefits from them.

• Designing the curriculum by frequently updating the syllabi according to the need.
• Preparing the students with more aptitude, skill and leadership quality by educating them.
• Make the students as entrepreneurs in the plant based industries.
• Identification and encouragement to turn the students into eminent Scientists/ Laurels.

• The Department of Botany is one of the oldest Departments in our prestigious Institution and was started by introducing PUC (Natural Science, Physics and Chemistry) in the year 1973- 1974.
• The UG Programme in Botany was started in the year 1979 and upgraded to PG level in the year, 1984 in order to meet the demands of Botany in higher studies. 
• The substantial availability of staff members with Doctorate in the department has lead to the establishment of Research programmes (M. Phil and Ph. D) in Botany in the year, 1986.
• In the year, 2001-2002, the Branch V Botany (UG) was renamed as Plant Biology and Plant Biotechnology under the branch Va.                                    
• In addition, by considering the demand and also for self employability and recruitment in forest services, in the year, 2018-2019 certificate course in Bonsai and PG diploma course in Biodiversity have been introduced.

• The Department has been recognised by various agencies including DST-FIST,UGC, and DBT-STAR COLLEGE Scheme for augmenting sophisticated infrastructural facilities.
• All the faculty members have qualified Ph.D in various research fields with good research exposure, consultancy services will be offered more intensively to the companies concerned. 
• Department has a well established Green house and Herbal garden for maintaining valuable indigenous and exotic specie.
• The Department also offers job oriented courses like floriculture and landscaping, and food processing and preservation, and skill based subjects like Cultivation and marketing of medicinal plants, Mushroom cultivation and marketing.
• The Department  offers medicinal Botany for human welfare as Extra Department course for UG students of various disciplines and Applied Horticulture as Extra Department course for PG students of various disciplines. 
• Being a recognized centre, scholars are receiving scholarships /stipend from Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology and Rajiv Gandhi Fellowships.
• The Department also has a herbarium centre with a repository of more than 3000 species which include many endemic, rare, threatened and endangered species of Angiosperms.
• The Department frequently organizes various hands-on training programs/symposia/ workshops/seminars/ conferences/ special lectures and association meetings in thrust areas of subject by inviting most eminent and popular botanists.
• Many of our passed out students are working in various renowned national institutions, academic institutions and many public sectors.

• The Faculty members of the Department carry out research in various frontier areas, which includes Medico-Botany, Plant Tissue Culture and Genetic Transformation, Plant Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Phytochemistry and Pharmacology, Taxonomy and Ethnobotany

Medico-Botany :

• Pharmacological investigations of Herbal Medicines                    
• Evaluation and standardization of traditional herbal drugs Pharmacological investigations of Endemic plants           

Phytochemistry and Pharmacology :                                                                       

• Phyochemical analysis of traditional medicinal plants.  Nutritional evaluation and biofunctional properties of  under-utilized plants.                                                               
• Studies on bioactive constituents and therapeutic properties of wild endangered medicinal plants.  
• Antioxidant, Antidiabetic and Cytotoxic, properties of rare, endemic and endangered (RET) medicinal plants.
• Isolation of bio-active compounds from plants.                                                      

Bioinformatics:                                                                

•  In Silico prediction and Comparative Modeling of proteins in plants. 
• Protein purification and analysis                                                                                               

Tissue Culture :

• In vitro regeneration of traditional medicinal plants. 
• In vitro propagation and conservation of RET plants.  

Microbiology :                                                                            

•  Biological control of foliar diseases of commercial plants.                                             

Taxonomy and Ethnobotany :                                                       

• Survey of fern and fern allies in Tamil Nadu.                           
• Survey and Assessment of RET plants and Invasive plants. 
• Exploration of medicinal plants in Western and Eastern Ghats.
• Composition and Ecological Attributes of Major Plant Communities.
• Floral biology of Plants                                                                                      

Plant Molecular Biology & Functional Genomics:                                                              

• Cytological Studies in Plants.
• Fucntional Genomics for Biotic and Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants.                                  
• Plant & Insect Molecular Biology                                                     
• RNA interference (RNAi) for Insect Pest Managemnet
• Genome Editing for crop improvement
• Application of Nanotechnology for Insect Pest Management.

• Since inception, the Department has produced about 1550 undergraduates, 676 post graduates, 138 M.Phil’s and 127 Doctorates. 
• The areas of specialization in research programme are Taxonomy of Angiosperms, Anatomy, Seed Physiology, Microbiology, Medico-botany, Cytogenetics and Plant Ecology. 
• The department also offers job oriented courses viz., Floriculture and Landscaping,  food processing and preservation for PG students.  
• So far the Department has successfully completed 14 major and 14 Minor research projects funded by various funding agencies like UGC, MoENF, CSIR, TNSCST, BSI, etc for the total outlay of around Rs. 1 Crore. 
• At this juncture, it is worthwhile to mention that sufficient data has been collected on the flora of Western Ghats, especially on endemic, rare, threatened, endangered and medicinal plants.
• The specimen documentation for plant specimens has been done and deposited in the Herbarium of Botany Department.                                                                                            
• The available herbaria was referred both by the intra and inter institutional students, scholars and faculty members. 
• The active research work has resulted in 648 publications in various reputed journals with good impact factor.
• The Department has a medicinal plant garden for maintaining valuable indigenous and exotic species of high therapeutic value.
•  Exhibitions on folkloric and ethnomedicinal plants are being organized to motivate the students to take interest in cultivation of medicinal plants for home remedies. 
• In order to motivate and improvise  student knowledge and skills in the emerging areas of Plant Sciences, frequent industrial visits/ educational field trips to variuos research institutions like TNAU, BSI, IFGTB and industries viz., Parry Agro Tea factory, Valparai and Pasteur institute were undertaken. 
• Regular field trips were made to coastal regions of Rameswaram, Kaniyakumari and Cochin to acquire knowledge about the algal natural habitats and Kodaikanal, Munnar and Thekkadi to explore the various vegetational types.