Type | Research institution |
---|---|
Established | 1959 |
Director | Prof. Anil Kumar Tripathi |
Location | Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India |
Website | www.cimap.res.in |
Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) is a research institute of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) with its headquarter in Lucknow. It is engaged in the field of science and business of medicinal and aromatic plants. CIMAP has four research centers situated in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pantnagar and Purara (neat Bageshwar, Uttarakhand).
Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, known as CIMAP, is a frontier plant research laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Established originally as Central Indian Medicinal Plants Organisation (CIMPO) in 1959, CIMAP is steering multidisciplinary high quality research in biological and chemical sciences and extending technologies and services to the farmers and entrepreneurs of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) with its research headquarters at Lucknow and Research Centres at Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pantnagar and Purara. CIMAP Research Centres are aptly situated in different agro-climatic zones of the country to facilitate multi-location field trials and research. A little more than 50 years since its inception, today, CIMAP has extended its wings overseas with scientific collaboration agreements with Malaysia. CSIR-CIMAP has signed two agreements to promote bilateral cooperation between India and Malaysia in research, development and commercialization of MAP related technologies.
CIMAP’s contribution to the Indian economy through its MAPs research is well known. Mint varieties released and agro-packages developed and popularised by CIMAP has made India the global leader in mints and related industrial products. CIMAP has released several varieties of the MAPs, their complete agro-technology and post harvest packages which have revolutionised MAPs cultivation and business scenario of the country.
CIMAP is a unique lab of its kind in the entire globe, way ahead of its time even at the time of its establishment. As a ripple effect of CIMAP’s success and contribution, other research establishments have now started seriously considering MAPs in their portfolio. While conserving the plant genetic resources systematically and undertaking world class research work in plant science, CIMAP is equipping the nation with high-tech agriculture linked to industrial processing of MAPs. CIMAP is equipped with state-of-the-art multidisciplinary laboratories, ultra-modern instrumentation facilities and scientific expertise in agriculture, genetics and plant breeding, molecular taxonomy, molecular and structural biology, plant biotechnology, biochemistry, microbiology, bio energy and chemical sciences, apart from development of herbal products. CIMAP, Lucknow houses the National Gene Bank of medicinal and aromatic plants, in addition to seed gene bank, tissue and DNA bank. Further, Field Gene Bank of different varieties of MAPs is maintained at CIMAP Lucknow and its four research centres situated across the country.