Withania is a genus of the nightshade family of flowering plants. Only two species W. somnifera and W. coagulans are found in India. The simultaneous quantitative analysis of six major bioactive withanolides in five varieties of WS and in different plant parts (root, stem and leaf) of WS was accomplished.
Dr. Brijesh Kumar was a Professor (AcSIR), & Chief Scientist at sophisticated analytical instrument facility division, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute Lucknow, India. He completed his PhD from CSIR-CDRI, Lucknow (Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, Avadh University Faizabad UP, India). He has to his credit 8 books, 11 book chapters and 151 papers in reputed International Journals. His area of research is applications of Mass Spectrometry for qualitative and quantitative analysis of Indian medicinal plants and their herbal formulations for quality control and authentication/standardization. He is also involved in the identification of marker compounds using statistical software to check adulteration/substitution.
Dr. Vikas Bajpai completed his PhD from the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), New Delhi, India and carried his research work under supervision of Dr. Brijesh Kumar at CSIR-Central Drug research Institute Lucknow. His research includes development and validation of LC-MS/MS methods for qualitative and quantitative analysis of small molecules of Indian medicinal plants.
Vikaskumar Gond is a junior research fellow working under supervision of Dr. Brijesh Kumar in the mass spectrometry laboratory, Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility at CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute Lucknow. He completed his masters in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of Lucknow. His research interests include fingerprinting and characterization of phytochemicals using LC-MS/MS.
Surabhi Tiwari completed her masters in Chemistry from the University of Allahabad, India. After working on the analysis of herbals using instruments like- HPTLC and HPLC in the Pharmacognosy Division, NBRI, Lucknow, she is currently working as Senior Research Fellow in SAIF Division of CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India under the supervision of Dr. Brijesh Kumar. Her current research interests include phytochemical analysis of medicinal plants.
Dr. K. P. Madhusudanan is a mass spectrometry scientist born in 1947 in Kochi, Kerala, India. He obtained his doctoral degree in 1975 specializing in Organic Mass Spectrometry in National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India. He worked as a Scientist and Head, Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility in Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow until 2007. His research experience since 1970 includes various aspects of organic mass spectrometry such as fragmentation mechanism, gas phase unusual reactions, positive and negative ion mass spectrometry of natural products using various ionization techniques including DART, effects of metal cationization, LC/MS and MS/MS applications and quantitative analysis of drugs and metabolites. He authored more than 150 research publications. He was a member of the editorial board of Journal of Mass Spectrometry during 1995-2007. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, India. At present he lives in Kochi.
