Immunity Boosting Medicinal Plants of the Western Himalayas

  Dr. Ajay Sharma is a Natural Product Chemist with a strong background in Organic Chemistry, Phytochemistry,   Biochemistry, and Ethnobotany. Presently, he is working as an Assistant Professor at the University Centre for Research and Development, Department of Chemistry, Chandigarh University, Mohali, India. He completed his Graduation (B.Sc. Medical) from Govt. College Hoshiarpur (affiliated to Panjab University, Chandigarh); Master’s Degree in Organic Chemistry (Natural Products) from Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana; and his PhD (Organic Chemistry – Natural product) from SLIET (Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering & Technology, Deemed University), Punjab. He has published over 51 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in reputed international/national journals and books. Presently, his five edited books are under production in different international publication houses like Springer, Taylor & Francis, Elsevier, and Royal Society of Chemistry. He has various Honors/Fellowship/Awards to his credit, i.e., Role of honor from PAU Ludhiana (2011), Merit-cum-topper scholarship during M.Sc. (PAU Ludhiana, 2009–10), MHRD fellowship Award for Ph.D. (2012), Award of INSPIRE fellowship (JRF, 2013) from DST, Award of INSPIRE fellowship (SRF, 2015) from DST, 1st Prize in Poster Award at National Conference (NICS-2016), and Best Poster also. He does research in Organic Chemistry, Natural Products Chemistry, Phytochemistry, and Food Chemistry. His research activities have focused on isolation and characterization of bioactive extracts from traditional medicinal plants and evaluation of their biological potential. Currently, his research group at Chandigarh University is investigating the field of more environmentally friendly synthesis of metal nanoparticles and carbon nanodots using plant extracts/plant-based biomass followed by assessing their biological, catalytic, and sensing potential. Till date, he has successfully guided six M.Sc. dissertation students.

Dr. Gulzar Ahmad Nayik completed his Master’s Degree in Food Technology from Islamic University of Science & Technology, Awantipora, Jammu and Kashmir, India, and PhD from Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering & Technology, Sangrur, Punjab, India. He has published over 75 peer-reviewed research and review papers and over 35 book chapters. He has also edited 11 books so far with Springer, Elsevier, and Taylor & Francis. He has delivered several presentations at various national and international conferences, seminars, workshops, and webinars. He was shortlisted twice for the prestigious Inspire-Faculty Award in 2017 and 2018 from Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, India. He was nominated for India’s prestigious National Award (Indian National Science Academy Medal for Young Scientists, 2019–20). He also fills the roles of editor, associate editor, assistant editor, and reviewer for many food science and technology journals. He has received many awards, appreciations, and recognitions and holds membership in various international societies and organizations. Dr. Nayik is currently editing several book projects with Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, Springer Nature, Royal Society of Chemistry, etc.