The faculty of pharmacy of Dhaka University (DU) in association with Society for Ethnopharmacology India (SFEI) organised an international congress on Ethnopharmacology for the first time in Bangladesh.

The 18th congress of International Society for Ethnopharmacology (ISE) and the fifth of Society for Ethnopharmacology of India (SFEI), which was organised jointly this time, began yesterday at the Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Building on the campus.

The theme of this year’s congress is “Ethnopharmacology and Drug Development: Innovation Meets Tradition”.

The society had been holding biannual international congresses across the world for promoting discussion between local and traditional knowledge on medicinal, food and toxic plants and their past, present and future since its inception in 1990, at the first congress in Strasbourg.

Science and Technology Minister Yafes Osman inaugurated the congress.

Prof Emeritus AK Azad Chowdhury urged the government to provide technical supports to increase research in this sector.

DU Vice Chancellor Prof Akhtaruzzaman presided over the session where Indian High Commissioner Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Prof Sitesh Chandra Bachar spoke.

Around 800 national and international researchers, students, teachers, scientists from 32 different countries including 100 from India and 650 from Bangladesh are participating in the conference.

The three-day congress ends tomorrow.