As another arm of the ongoing research on phyto-pharmaceuticals, the group is also indulged in bioreactor cultivation of Viola odorata plant cells to produce cyclotides-rich herbal extracts for prevention and treatment of respiratory tract disorders.Viola odorata L. (Violaceae) in India is commonly known as 'Banafsha' and is widely used in the indigenous system of medicine for the treatment of ailments like tonsillitis, respiratory catarrh, cough, bronchitis, asthma and urinary disorders. The plant and it’s in vitro cultures are known to be rich in cyclotides, a unique class of plant-based cyclic peptides, which demonstrate a plethora of biological activities, including anti-inflammatory, anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties, which indicate that plant biomass extracts rich in cyclotides can be efficient in the prevention and treatment of respiratory disorders. The group was the first one in India to identify known and novel cyclotides in Indian medicinal plant Viola odorata.

Our Research on Cylcotides:

Publications:

1) Cyclotides from the Indian medicinal plant Viola odorata (Banafsha): Identification and characterization (Narayani etal. 2017)

2) Callus and cell suspension culture of Viola odorata as in vitro production platforms of known and novel cyclotides.(Narayani etal. 2017)

3) Production of bioactive cyclotides in somatic embryos of Viola odorata.(Narayani etal. 2018)

4) A rationally optimised batch bioreactor cultivation of Viola odorata plant cells for sustainable production of its key bioactive principles.(Babu etal. 2024)

5) Model-based fed-batch cultivation of Viola odorata plant cells exhibiting antimalarial and anticancer activity (Babu etal 2025)

6) Computational prediction of cyclotides from Viola odorata as potential inhibitors against the neuraminidase of Streptococcus pneumoniae (Sankar etal. 2025)

Patents:

1) A process for production of active biomass of Viola odorata in bioreactors.