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Palynology is
the branch of science dealing with
microscopic, decay-resistant remains of certain plants pollen, spores
and
similar palynomorphs, living and fossil. Hyde and Williams coined the
term in
the year 1944. It has many applications including Quaternary
palynology,
Mellisopalynology and allergy studies.
Palynology
work in the department was initiated by Dr. D.E.P. Jeyasingh in the
year 1984.
The first work entitled “Pollen morphology of some
angiosperms from the scrub
vegetation of the Madras Christian College campus” was
carried out by Mr.
H.K.P. Devadoss for his M.Phil. research program under the guidance of
Dr.
D.E.P. Jeyasingh. Mr. H.K.P. Devadoss and his students with
close
collaboration with French Institute of Pondicherry have carried out
further
work in Palynology.
Dr.
C. Caratini, former head of Laboratory of Palynology, French
Institute of Pondicherry (IFP), India had inspired us in the initial
stages by
providing valuable advice and encouragement. Dr. J-P. Sutra, then
doctoral
Research Scholar, Laboratory of Palynology, IFP, India also gave lot of
suggestions and literature pertaining to the science of Palynology as
well as
demonstrated the procedure of extraction of pollen from honey samples.
We have
been working in close collaboration with Dr. G. Vasanthi, Dr. Anupama,
and Mr.
Prasad of IFP.
The
first work of Aeropalynology in Chennai was initiated from
this lab and the findings were presented in the 5th International
Conference on
Aerobiology that was held in Bangalore in 1994. A pollen calendar for
Madras
Christian College has been prepared with data collected for two
consecutive
years from 1991 to 1993.
Pollen
morphology and photo documentation of pollen has been
carried out for about 3 decades and a collection of more than 800
tropical
species (very few temperate species)/2000 micro preparation in the form
of
reference slides are housed in the Palynology laboratory at Madras
Christian
College. The Laboratory of Palynology has been working on honey samples
from
Andhra and Tamil Nadu.
A
minor project sponsored by UGC was granted during the year
1996-98 for the preparation of “Pollen Atlas of
Madras”.
Histochemical
studies of
major food reserves in pollen such as starch grains, proteins and
lipids have
been carried out successfully by the research scholars as part of their
M.
Phil. Program. Pollinial morphology of some Asclepiadaceae members in
and
around Tambaram, Pollen production and morphology of a few
heterostylous plants
and Poaceae members in and around Tambaram and pollen carrying capacity
of Apis
florea, Stilbum, Apis indica and Trigona iridipennis were carried out
by
students as part of their M.Sc. thesis. Recently, M.Sc. students under
the
guidance of Mr. Selvasingh Richard
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