Baramulla, Sep 24: A girl hailing from north Kashmir’s Baramulla town has achieved a milestone of obtaining an Indian patent on her new technique of leaf clearing method.
Hailing from north Kashmir’s Baramulla town, Saima Rashid Mir executed her work in the research laboratory of the Department of Botany at Prof Ramakrishna More, Arts Commerce and Science College, Akurdikar, Pune, Maharashtra.
Saima’s technique effectively clears the leaf surface without causing any damage to the venation architectures while the venation surface topography remains well preserved.
Unlike, the chemical method of leaf clearing which often causes severe damage to the leaf architecture including venation besides being fragile and hard to preserve, the microbiological method of leaf clearing developed by Saima, using cell preparations of S cerevisiae, preserves the cellular integrity of leaf vein cells without bringing any major change in the architectural pattern of the cells.
The new invention is considered non-toxic and cost effective and has far reaching implications in aiding taxonomical studies besides preservation of endangered species as fossil specimens in the form of leaf impressions and compressions.
The invention by Saima was part of her postdoctoral work in the DST-sponsored project ‘Studies on Venation Skeleton Preparation and Preservation of Different Families of Leaves for Dry Flower Industry’.
Hailed for her achievement, Saima received commendations from her mentors including M M Jana, former senior horticulturist from National Chemical Laboratory Pune and Prof Aijaz Ahmad Wani of the University of Kashmir.
“It is a great achievement and she deserves applause for her great work,” Prof Wani said.
Saima dedicated her achievement to her late mother Khadija who has been her biggest inspiration during her PhD and postdoctoral work.