Project overview

Cooperating countries: Pakistan and Austria

Coordinating institution: Department of Chemistry, University of Swabi, Pakistan

Project coordinator: Prof. Dr. Muhammad Nasimullah Qureshi

Partner institution: Austrian Drug Screening Institute (ADSI), University of Innsbruck, Austria

Project duration: 01.11.2020 - 31.10.2023

Natural flora is the treasure of the diverse novel, biologically and medicinally important compounds which lay the foundation of drug discovery and the success in this field. There are several common forms of natural products, which are: Phytochemicals, nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, oleoresins, essential oil etc. According to the modern concept of health, the focus is not merely the eradication of disease but the care of health of human. This ratifies that the health care product should not only be active against the specific disease or any abnormal condition but also be safe in terms of other side effects. This reality validates the use of herbs and herbal based product for health care. In this context, phytocosmetics, aroma products, toiletries and personal care products have increasingly attracted interest by the market. Currently there is a strong innovation trend of the use of phytocosmetics in world market e.g. in some mature markets like Europe, Asia and the United States. According to the available literature, the global market for natural personal care products is estimated at more than $32 billion in 2014. Europe and North America are currently the biggest market for phytocosmetics while Asia and Latin America are the fastest growing regions. The global market potentials reveal the society interest in phytocosmetics which demands serious studies and special attention towards the phytocosmetics and phytocosmeceuticals.

This project is aimed at the mutual cooperation and coordination for the development research project focusing on phytochemical screening of the flora of local regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan and the Innsbruck, Austria and their cosmetological evaluation in order to reach at the safe, effective and non-toxic phytocosmetic products. The project is funded for the mobility and material expenses for researchers at the Department of Chemistry, University of Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan and Institute of Analytical Chemistry and Radio-chemistry (ACRC); Austrian Drug Screening Institute (ADSI), University of Innsbruck, Austria under the Cooperation Development Research program of OEAD-GmbH, Austria in order to achieve SDGs adopted by the UN member countries in 2015.