Assessment of Medicinal Plants for Human Health

Megh R. Goyal, PhD, PE, is a Retired Professor in Agricultural and Biomedical Engineering from the General Engineering Department in the College of Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez Campus; and Senior Acquisitions Editor and Senior Technical Editor-in-Chief in Agriculture and Biomedical Engineering for Apple Academic Press Inc. He has worked as a Soil Conservation Inspector and as a Research Assistant at Haryana Agricultural University and Ohio State University. He was the first agricultural engineer to receive the professional license in Agricultural Engineering in 1986 from the College of Engineers and Surveyors of Puerto Rico. On September 16, 2005, he was proclaimed as Father of Irrigation Engineering in Puerto Rico for the twentieth century by the ASABE, Puerto Rico Section, for his pioneering work on micro irrigation, evapotranspiration, agroclimatology, and soil and water engineering. During his professional career of 45 years, he has received many prestigious awards. A prolific author and editor, he has written more than 200 journal articles and several textbooks and has edited over 60 books. He received his BSc degree in engineering from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India; his MSc and PhD degrees from Ohio State University, Columbus; and his Master of Divinity degree from Puerto Rico Evangelical Seminary, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, USA. Durgesh Nandini Chauhan, MPharm, has several years of academic (teaching) experience at institutes in India in pharmaceutical sciences. She taught subjects such as pharmaceutics, pharmacognosy, traditional concepts of medicinal plants, drug delivery, phytochemistry, cosmetic technology, pharmaceutical engineering, pharmaceutical packaging, quality assurance, dosage form designing, and anatomy and physiology. She is a member of the Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India, SILAE: Società Italo-Latinoamericana di Etnomedicina (The Scientific Network on Ethnomedicine, Italy), and others. Her previous research work included Penetration Enhancement Studies on Organogel of Oxytetracycline HCL. She has attended several workshops, conferences, and symposiums, including the AICTE-Sponsored Staff Development Program on Effects of Teaching and Learning Skills in Pharmacy: Tool for Improvement of Young Pharmacy Teachers. She has written more than ten articles published in national and international journals, 13 book chapters, and two books: Optimization and Evaluation of an Organogel and Plant- and Marine- Based Phytochemicals for Human Health: Attributes, Potential, and Use (Apple Academic Press). She is also active as a reviewer for several international scientific journals and an active participant at national and international conferences, including Bhartiya Vigyan Sammelan and the International Convention of the Society of Pharmacognosy. Presently she joined the Ishita Research Organization, Raipur, India as a freelance writer and guide for students in pharmacy, Ayurvedic, and science in their research projects. Mrs. Chauhan earned her BPharm degree in pharmacy from the Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal, India, and her MPharm (Pharmaceutical Sciences) in pharmaceutics from Uttar Pradesh Technical University (currently Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University), Lucknow, India.