All three research laboratories at Bangladesh National Herbarium (BNH) have been under lock and key since their setting up in 1999.

Dr Mahbuba Khanom, director in-charge of the BNH, said they need scientists with applied knowledge to run the labs but they have no such scientists.

Researchers said laboratory work is vital for plant taxonomy (identification and classification), which is the fundamental job of the institution, but the laboratories are lying inoperative in absence of basic apparatus and chemicals.

On the other hand, a number of modem research equipment are lying unused in these laboratories —anatomy and cytology lab, tissue culture lab, and biochemicallab.

Scientists at BNH said expensive equipment including two compound photomicroscopes and one microtone machine have not yet been unwrapped of packages.

The labs were established and the equipment were procured in September 1999 with the fund from the UK Department For International Development (DFID).

Prof Mahfuzur Rahman, chairman of Botany Department at Jahangirnagar University, said "I, as a scientific officer, left the BNH in 1991 simply because there was no research work and no recognition to and inspiration for research.”

He said a number of other scientists have also left BNH for the same reason.

According to inside sources, the labs were set up in an unplanned manner. Growth

chambers at the tissue culture lab are lying vacant without any plants.

Electric balance (scale), distillation plant (for water distillation), and microwave are required to set up a functional issue culture lab.

Scientists at BNH said tissue culture research is crucial for conservation of endangered plants and in producing plants on commercial basis.

They also said while the government is spending money on the BNH with no income generation, tissue culture research could have been a source of revenue income.

Biochemical research is vital for establishing applied scientific knowledge of plants, the scientists said adding that it might also help produce herbal products.

Anatomical and cytological research is vital for enrichment

of existing taxonomical knowledge. It is all the more crucial for characterisation of plants to establish Intellectual Property Right of the local plants.

There is research work at BNH as the labs are closed.

Bushra Khan, a senior scientific officer (SSO) of BNH, said the labs could not be made functional as required scientists have not been recruited.

Waliur Rahman, another SSO, also said they do not have scientists to run the labs.

HISTORYOFBNH

The BNH was set up in was set up 37 years ago with the objectives of surveying and identification of plants of the country and carry out research on plants for conservation.

The idea of establishing a national herbarium in Bangladesh was first proposed at a meeting in Lahore on August

18, 1958, according to a publica-tion of the Ministry of Environment and Forests in May 2001.

Later, the Tropical Herbarium Inspectors Committee at the UNESCO Symposium held in Dhaka on March 3, 1968 raised the Lahore proposal again.

Finally, (he BNH got its primary structure in 1970 in a development project titled 'Botanical Survey of East Pakistan' founded at the Department of Botany of Dhaka University.

The project assumed the name as Botanical Survey of Bangladesh in 1971 after independence and continued as a project until July 1999, when it was taken under revenue budget. It has been known as Bangladesh National Herbarium since July 1, 1994 by an executive order of the Cabinet Division.