PAU student bags best paper presentation award

Ludhiana, March 19, 2024: Shrishti Joshi, a Ph.D student from the Department of Food and Nutrition, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), has been conferred with the “Best Paper Presentation Award” during the National Conference on “Seed Spices and Allied Crops,” jointly organised by the Indian Society of Seed Spices, ICAR-National Research Centre on Seed Spices; and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, at Ajmer, Rajasthan, from March 13-15, 2024. The paper entitled “Recent advances in addressing the nutritional, industrial and therapeutic effects of magical spice: Kalonji (Nigella sativa)” has been authored by Shrishti Joshi, Shikha Mahajan, Arashdeep Singh and Sonika Sharma.

Shrishti Joshi is also a recipient of UGC-NET Junior Research Fellowship and pursuing her Ph.D on the topic “Nutraceutical potential of products prepared from different forms of Kalonji (Nigella sativa)” under the guidance of Dr Shikha Mahajan, Assistant Professor, Department of Food and Nutrition, PAU. Dr Shikha explained that this study was planned to obtain the Kalonji powder, oil and deoiled meal using different novel extraction methods and advanced instrumentation techniques. Further, this research work was also aimed to assess the nutraceutical potential of food products prepared from different forms of Kalonji.

Dr Kiran Grover, Head, Department of Food and Nutrition, highlighted that the research work was to be carried out in collaboration with ICAR-Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology, Ludhiana. She appreciated the achievement of the team for the collaborative efforts.

Dr Satbir Singh Gosal, Vice-Chancellor, PAU; Dr MIS Gill, Dean, Postgraduate Studies and Dr Kiran Bains, Dean, College of Community Science, congratulated the team for the award.