 Along with his team, Verma's research in the area of wildlife conservation led to the reclassification of the pygmy hog, an endangered endemic species, from "Sus salvanius" to "Porcula salvania"

In 2015 Verma claimed that the malaria treatment drug artemisinin (initially extracted from "Artemisia annua", later synthesized), the discovery of which earned Chinese scientist Tu Youyou the Lasker Award in 2011 and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015, has roots in older traditional medicine from India under the name artemisin, associated with a related Indian plant species (Hindi