53rd Annual Congress of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research, a joint meeting with the Italian Society of Phytochemistry — August 21–25, 2005, Florence, Italy

Fitoterapia 77 (2006) 247–250www.elsevier.com/locate/fitote

Meeting report

53rd Annual Congress of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research, ajoint meeting with the Italian Society of Phytochemistry — August21–25, 2005, Florence, Italy

The year's congress of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research was a joint meeting with the Italian Society ofPhytochemistry and was organised by Prof. F. F. Vincieri and took place in Florence at Palazzo dei Congressi andPalazzo degli Affari in the centre of Florence. Seven hundred participants from 70 countries participated in the meeting,200 of them were students. The scientific program included nine plenary lectures, 53 short lectures, and fiveworkshops. During the congress two poster sessions were scheduled and a total of 582 posters were presented, dealingwith the various aspects of medicinal plant research. Poster awards were given to the authors of the selected postersduring the Closing Ceremony on Wednesday afternoon.

Sunday in the afternoon a new event characterised the Congress: the workshop for Young Researchers. It wasorganised by Prof. Dr. A.R. Bilia, Florence, Italy, and Prof. Dr. A. Hensel, Münster, Germany. Co-chairs were Dr. A.Deters, Münster, Germany, Prof. Dr. M. Kuesgen, Marburg, Germany and Prof. Dr. J.-L. Wolfender, Genève,Switzerland. Eight young scientists working in the field of Pharmacognosy and Analytical Phytochemistry wereselected to present their work and discuss difficulties, problems and ambiguous results. The presentations werecommented on by the panelists and the entire international audience. The workshop served as a forum for the participantsto get in contact with other researchers, to become familiar with other approaches and future research topics, to sharemethodologies and knowledge of instruments, and to expand their own studies by acquiring ideas in a constructive andinternational atmosphere.

At the end of the workshop, two young researchers were selected and awarded: S. Dall'Acqua of the University ofPadova and A. Riyazi of the University of Münster. The other young researchers were A. Karioti (University ofAthens); S. Kipke (University of Münster); F. Maltese (University of Perugia); N. Padilla Montaño (University of LaLaguna); C. Pérez Reyes (University of La Laguna) and S. Schwaiger (University of Innsbruck). From the audience(about 150 people) a young researcher was also selected and awarded for her valuable involvement in the discussion.

The Congress was opened Monday with the presentation of Awards and Grants. Prof. Dr. R. Narhsted, Münster,Germany was nominated Honorary Member of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research. The Egon–Stahl goldenmedal was awarded to Prof. Dr. D. Gröger, Halle, Germany. The Egon–Stahl prize with silver medal was awarded toDr. Deniz Tasdemir, Zurich, Switzerland, who reported her studies concerning new approaches toward an old disease:malaria. In particular, she reported her studies on the activity of some molecules in the inhibition of a specific enzymeof Plasmodium falciparum, the enoyl-ACP reductase (also known as FabI), one of the most crucial enzymes of type IIfatty acid synthase (FAS-II), the main enzymatic unit for fatty acid biosynthesis in Plasmodium. She reportedinteresting data on the activity of some marine or plant extracts, as well as pure isolated compounds such as luteolin-7-O-glucoside, an iridodial derivative, several pyrrol alkaloids and furanoterpenes.

The congress continued with lectures and short lectures concerning the chosen topics of the Congress:Metabolomics, Herbal Medicinal Products: Biopharmaceutical aspects, Botanical Health Products: Prevention ofcancer and cardiovascular diseases, Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products from non-EU countries and Pharmacologyof Natural Products.

In the opening Lecture, Prof. Dr. R. Verpoorte, Leiden, the Netherlands, reviewed the advances made in recent yearswith respect to metabolomics as a new opportunity for pharmacognosists. He pointed out how metabolomics aims at

doi:10.1016/j.fitote.2006.02.008

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fitote.2006.02.008

248 Meeting report

the chemical characterization of a phenotype by the qualitative and quantitative analysis of all metabolites present byusing chromatographic methods, mass spectrometry or NMR. He reported the advantages and disadvantages of suchmethods and problems related to the use of chemometric methods such as multivariate and principle componentanalysis. He concluded by explaining that for medicinal plants metabolomics is an excellent tool in quality control butcan also be very useful in studying the activity of medicinal plants.

Dr. E. Holmes, London, UK, stressed some issues of metabolomics, in particular the metabolite profiling of naturalproducts and their metabolic consequences. These were described with particular emphasis on deconvolving biologicalcomplexity and minimising confounding biological and analytical ‘noise’. Some examples were reported: chamomile,feverfew, Artemisia annua and other traditional Chinese medicine components.

The third lecture on Monday concerned Biopharmaceutical aspects of Herbal Medicinal Products (HMPs). Itwas presented by Prof. Dr. H. Derendorf, Gainesville, Florida, USA, who reported some studies concerningpharmacokinetics and drug interaction of HMPs. He underlined that it is necessary for the rational use of any drugto have a good understanding of the concentrations that will be achieved in the body after its administration. Ofparticular interest is the question of bioavailability to assess to what degree and how fast the therapeutic agent isabsorbed. Knowledge of the bioavailability is essential for the correct in vivo interpretation of in vitro activitiesthat are sometimes the basis of therapeutic claims. Finally, he pointed out that HMPs can cause a number of druginteractions with other medications that may be of clinical significance and also reviewed some representativeexamples.

Two parallel workshop sessions took place on Monday. The first, “The Practice of Dissolution Testing in HerbalMedicinal Products”, was organised and chaired by Prof. Dr. B. Meier, Grüental, Switzerland. Panelists were Prof. Dr.A.R. Bilia, Florence, Italy, PD Dr. W. Knoess, Bonn, Germany, and Dr. H. Sievers, Vestenbergsgreuth, Germany.According to the current regulations dissolution testings are an essential part in the documentation of HMPs. In theconclusive remarks it was pointed out that the link between biopharmaceutical properties and the efficacy of herbalmedicinal products is very complex. Therefore, dissolution characteristics of HMPs will be considered more an aspectof the product's quality rather than criteria for measuring bioavailability. The justification of the phytoequivalence ofnew products and new galenic forms compared with products of traditional and well-established use is another tool forthe application of dissolution profiles.

The other workshop, “Herbal drug preparations and rhinosinusitis — complex mixtures to manage a complexdisease?”, was organised and chaired by Dr. I. Szelenyia, Erlangen, Germany. Panelists were Dr. St. Mauneb, Kiel,Germany, Dr. A. Pahla, Erlangen, Germany and Dr. P. Stiernac, Stockholm, Sweden. The first part of the workshop wasdedicated to the classification of rhinosinusitis, defining and describing the various stages of sinusitis ranging fromacute to chronic and to the up-to-date standard therapies for each stage. The second part of the workshop was focusedon the difficulties encountered when trying to preclinically model complex diseases such as rhinosinusitis and toinvestigate molecular–biological and pharmacodynamic mechanisms of herbal drug preparations. The presentationcontinued with the analysis of those stages of rhinosinusitis during which herbal therapies are indicated as well as theadvantages offered by the herbal drug preparations.

Two parallel sessions of short lectures took place on Monday afternoon. One was related to metabolomics, pointingout the possibility to use ion trap mass spectrometry, microflow LC/NMR, GC-MS and HPLC-DAD, and the othersession was dedicated to biopharmaceutical aspects and pharmaceutical technology of HMPs reporting severalexamples including echinacea extract, silymarin, verbascoside and essential oils. Two other parallel sessions took placeon Monday and were addressed to the use of pharmacological test systems in medicinal plant research and to theanalythical approaches in the investigations of medicinal plants including hyphenated techniques.

A welcome ceremony took place Monday evening in the prestigious Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio.Two lectures on the health benefits of wine were reported by Prof. Dr. M.A. Popp, Newmarkt, Germany, and Prof. Dr.H. Glossmann, Innsbruck, Austria. Lectures were followed by wine and oil testings in the Cortile di Michelozzo inPalazzo Vecchio.

The next day was devoted to Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products from non-EU countries and Pharmacology ofNatural Products.

Prof. Dr. R. Bauer, Graz, Austria opened the session with the lecture entitled “Scientific evaluation of traditional HMPsfrom non-EU countries”. He evidenced how in recent years, safety, efficacy and quality of such products have becomeimportant issues for health authorities and the public. He gave special emphasis to the evaluation of product safety andreported several examples of medicinal plants from Asia, Africa and South America, which have been scientifically

249Meeting report

evaluated and have successfully entered the European market, either as medicinal products or as dietary supplements, orwhich are still in development.

During the same session Prof. Dr. D. Guo, Bejing, China, give a lecture entitled “TCM-based drug discovery and themain issues in TCM modernization”. TCM represents a rich resource for new drug discovery: there are 12,807 speciesof traditional Chinese medicines, among which 11,146 are derived from medicinal plants, 1581 are from animals and80 from minerals. In the past 30 years, over 1200 TCMs have been phytochemically investigated by Chinese scientists,from which a number of bioactive principles have been developed into new drugs and launched into the market. Severaltypical new drugs derived from TCM resources are artemisinin (an antimalarial drug from A. annua), schisandrin (ananti-hepatitis C drug from Schisandra chinensis) and indirubin (an anticancer drug from Isatis tinctorius). Prof. Guoreported the quality control issues of several commonly used traditional Chinese medicines including the roots ofSalvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen), the skin secretion of Bufo Bufo gargarzans (Chansu), the roots of Paeonia lactiflora(Shaoyao), seeds of Cuscuta chinensis (Tusizi) and the heart wood of Dalbergia odorifera (Jiangxiang).

The session on Pharmacology of Natural Products was opened by Prof. G. Colombo, Cagliari, Italy, who gave alecture entitled “Identification of miltirone as active ingredient of S. miltiorrhiza responsible for the reducing effect ofroot extracts on alcohol intake in rats”.

He reported that extracts from the roots of S. miltiorrhiza, a Chinese medicinal herb, reduced alcohol intake inselectively bred Sardinian alcohol-preferring (sP) rats. Miltirone was described as one of the possible active constituentsbecause the effect of four different extracts of S.miltiorrhizawas positively and significantly correlatedwith their miltironecontent.

Prof. Dr. H. Wagner, Munich, Germany, gave a speech on the pharmacological synergy effects of phytopreparationsand their relevance for therapy. Many examples were reported: Ginkgo biloba, Hypericum, kava-kava, Cannabis andValeriana, as well as with mixed extract combinations (including Passiflora/kava-kava, Humulus lupulus/Passifloraand Ginseng/Ginkgo) and outstanding multiextract combinations on the drug market. The positive results of suchinvestigations suggest that this new concept of multidrug therapy can be described as a multitarget therapy, in whicheach component of the drug mixture affects another pharmacological target, resulting in a multicausal treatment. Thisevident therapeutic superiority and advantage give phytotherapy a new legitimation for the application of standardizedmono- or multiextract combinations.

On Tuesday there was the workshop of Regulatory Affairs on HMPs which was organised and chaired by Prof. Dr.A.J. Vlietinck, Antwerp, Belgium. The title was “How to implement the new legislation on HMPs”. Panelists wereProf. Dr. K. Keller, Bonn, Germany, Dr. V. Silano, Roma, Italia, and L. Kabelitz, Vestenbergsgreuth, Germany.

The widespread and increasing use worldwide of herbal medicinal products (HMPs) demands that appropriateregulatory actions be undertaken to regulate and harmonize the legal status of plant preparations throughout Europe. Forthis reason, the newly constituted committee on HMPs (HMPC) installed three drafting groups (ORGAM, Quality andSafety Efficacy). Themost urgent tasks of this committee are the establishment of a list of traditional herbal substances andthe drafting of community herbal monographs with well-established as well as traditional uses. Viewpoints from both theEuropean (K. Keller) and the national authorities (V. Silano) as well as from the pharmaceutical industry (L. Kabelitz) werediscussed.

Tuesday in the afternoon two parallel sessions of short lectures took place and they were related to traditional HMPsfrom non-EU countries including plant from Africa, Asia, and South America. Sessions dedicated to systematic, cellcultures biosynthesis and physiology of medicinal plants also took place.

Wednesday was opened by the plenary lectures of Dr. C. Gerhauser, Heidelberg, Germany, and Prof. Dr. A. D.Kinghorn, Ohio USA dedicated to Botanical Health Products in the Prevention of Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases.

Dr. C. Gerhauser spoke about the anti-angiogenesis as a mechanism in cancer prevention. Inhibition of angiogenesis,the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing microvasculature, represents an innovative approach to cancerchemoprevention. A series of twelve chemopreventive lead compounds, belonging to the chemical classes ofphloroglucinol derivatives, anthraquinones, isothiocyanates, flavanones, diterpenes, chalcones and bibenzyl derivatives oflunularic acid have been tested in the labs of the German Cancer Research Center. Two chemopreventive compounds,xanthohumol (XN) from H. lupulus L. and sulforaphane (SFN), an isothiocyanate derived from Brassicaceae have beenselected for more detailed investigation of their angiopreventive potential. Both compounds potently inhibited endothelialsteps crucial for angiogenesis, including hypoxia-induced release of pro-angiogenic factors, endothelial cell proliferation,migration and differentiation. In addition, XN showed also in vivo efficacy in human MX-1 breast tumour xenograftsimplanted in dorsal skinfold chamber preparations in female severe combined immunodeficient mice.

250 Meeting report

Prof. Dr. A. D. Kinghorn reported on the potential cancer chemopreventive activity of some botanical dietarysupplements. Cancer chemoprevention is an important strategy for managing and controlling cancer, and involves the useof synthetic or natural agents to inhibit, retard, or reverse the process of carcinogenesis, and recently, there has been anincreasing interest in the use of certain botanical dietary supplements for “detoxification”. He reported his studiesconcerning antioxidant and potential cancer chemopreventive activity of noni (Morinda citrifolia), mangosteen (Garciniamangostana), and sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides).

Two parallel workshop sessions were scheduled on Wednesday. The first entitled “Good practices, standards andcertifications of starting materials” was organised and chaired by Prof. Dr. Ch. Franz, Vienna, Austria. Panelists wereDr. B. Pätzold, Frankfurt, Germany, Dr. R. Iguera, Milano, Italy, Dr. B. Steinhoff, Bonn, Germany. Most of the plantsused in traditional or modern medicines are collected from the wild, just a small portion is large scale or small-plotcultivated. The workshop dealt with several important topics: a sustainable wild collection; issues related to Guidelinesfor Good Agricultural with respect to Good Wild Crafting Practice for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants and problemsrelated to the presentation of a complete documentation “from seeds to the final product” for obtaining marketingauthorisation.

Prof. Dr. H. Winterhoff, Münster, Germany, organised and chaired the workshop on Biological and PharmacologicalActivity of Natural Products entitled “Testing for improvement of learning and memory”. Panelists were Prof. Dr. C.Vonhoff, Münster, Germany, and Prof. Dr. M.F. Melzig, Berlin, Germany. After a general introduction, the panelistsdescribed the test systems of Alzheimer's disease and animal models for testing learning behaviour and memory withspecific application to HMPs. An important part of the talk dealt with the benefits and disadvantages of the diverse testsystems.

Two parallel short lecture sessions were addressed in the morning: one related to botanical health products, their usein the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular diseases and the other to the use of pharmacological test systems inmedicinal plant research. Anti-angiogenetic, antioxidant and apoptosis inducing constituents were presented within thefirst session while constituents with antibacterial, anticancer and immonomodulatory effects were reported in the othersession.

The Congress had a great success and reviewed by press agencies (11 reports), newspapers (76 reports), radio-news(49 reports), television news (18 reports) and by 35 web-sites.

Anna Rita Bilia*Franco Francesco Vincieri

Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche, Università di Firenze,via Gino Capponi, 9, 50121 Florence, Italy

E-mail address: [email protected].⁎Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 055 4573708; fax: +39 055 4573679.

mailto:FITOTE1367S0367-(06)000461016/j.fitote.2006.02.008Meeting report53rd Annual Congress of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research, a joint meeting with the Italian Society of Phytochemistry � August 21�25, 2005, Florence, ItalyAnna [email protected] FrancescoVincieriDipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche, Universit� di Firenze, via Gino Capponi, 9, 50121 Florence, ItalyNCorresponding author. Tel.: +55 4573708; fax: +55 4573679.The year's congress of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research was a joint meeting with the Italian Society of Phytochemistry and was organised by Prof. F. F. Vincieri and took place in Florence at Palazzo dei Congressi and Palazzo degli Affari in the centre of Florence. Seven hundred participants from 70 countries participated in the meeting, 200 of them were students. The scientific program included nine plenary lectures, 53 short lectures, and five workshops. During the congress two poster sessions were scheduled and a total of 582 posters were presented, dealing with the various aspects of medicinal plant research. Poster awards were given to the authors of the selected posters during the Closing Ceremony on Wednesday afternoon.Sunday in the afternoon a new event characterised the Congress: the workshop for Young Researchers. It was organised by Prof. Dr. A.R. Bilia, Florence, Italy, and Prof. Dr. A. Hensel, M�nster, Germany. Cohairs were Dr. A. Deters, M�nster, Germany, Prof. Dr. M. Kuesgen, Marburg, Germany and Prof. Dr. J.-. Wolfender, Gen�ve, Switzerland. Eight young scientists working in the field of Pharmacognosy and Analytical Phytochemistry were selected to present their work and discuss difficulties, problems and ambiguous results. The presentations were commented on by the panelists and the entire international audience. The workshop served as a forum for the participants to get in contact with other researchers, to become familiar with other approaches and future research topics, to share methodologies and knowledge of instruments, and to expand their own studies by acquiring ideas in a constructive and international atmosphere.At the end of the workshop, two young researchers were selected and awarded: S. Dall'Acqua of the University of Padova and A. Riyazi of the University of M�nster. The other young researchers were A. Karioti (University of Athens); S. Kipke (University of M�nster); F. Maltese (University of Perugia); N. Padilla Monta�o (University of La Laguna); C. P�rez Reyes (University of La Laguna) and S. Schwaiger (University of Innsbruck). From the audience (about 150 people) a young researcher was also selected and awarded for her valuable involvement in the discussion.The Congress was opened Monday with the presentation of Awards and Grants. Prof. Dr. R. Narhsted, M�nster, Germany was nominated Honorary Member of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research. The Egon�Stahl golden medal was awarded to Prof. Dr. D. Gr�ger, Halle, Germany. The Egon�Stahl prize with silver medal was awarded to Dr. Deniz Tasdemir, Zurich, Switzerland, who reported her studies concerning new approaches toward an old disease: malaria. In particular, she reported her studies on the activity of some molecules in the inhibition of a specific enzyme of Plasmodium falciparum, the enoyl-CP reductase (also known as FabI), one of the most crucial enzymes of type II fatty acid synthase (FAS-I), the main enzymatic unit for fatty acid biosynthesis in Plasmodium. She reported interesting data on the activity of some marine or plant extracts, as well as pure isolated compounds such as luteolin-Olucoside, an iridodial derivative, several pyrrol alkaloids and furanoterpenes.The congress continued with lectures and short lectures concerning the chosen topics of the Congress: Metabolomics, Herbal Medicinal Products: Biopharmaceutical aspects, Botanical Health Products: Prevention of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products from non-U countries and Pharmacology of Natural Products.In the opening Lecture, Prof. Dr. R. Verpoorte, Leiden, the Netherlands, reviewed the advances made in recent years with respect to metabolomics as a new opportunity for pharmacognosists. He pointed out how metabolomics aims at the chemical characterization of a phenotype by the qualitative and quantitative analysis of all metabolites present by using chromatographic methods, mass spectrometry or NMR. He reported the advantages and disadvantages of such methods and problems related to the use of chemometric methods such as multivariate and principle component analysis. He concluded by explaining that for medicinal plants metabolomics is an excellent tool in quality control but can also be very useful in studying the activity of medicinal plants.Dr. E. Holmes, London, UK, stressed some issues of metabolomics, in particular the metabolite profiling of natural products and their metabolic consequences. These were described with particular emphasis on deconvolving biological complexity and minimising confounding biological and analytical �noise�. Some examples were reported: chamomile, feverfew, Artemisia annua and other traditional Chinese medicine components.The third lecture on Monday concerned Biopharmaceutical aspects of Herbal Medicinal Products (HMPs). It was presented by Prof. Dr. H. Derendorf, Gainesville, Florida, USA, who reported some studies concerning pharmacokinetics and drug interaction of HMPs. He underlined that it is necessary for the rational use of any drug to have a good understanding of the concentrations that will be achieved in the body after its administration. Of particular interest is the question of bioavailability to assess to what degree and how fast the therapeutic agent is absorbed. Knowledge of the bioavailability is essential for the correct in vivo interpretation of in vitro activities that are sometimes the basis of therapeutic claims. Finally, he pointed out that HMPs can cause a number of drug interactions with other medications that may be of clinical significance and also reviewed some representative examples.Two parallel workshop sessions took place on Monday. The first, �The Practice of Dissolution Testing in Herbal Medicinal Products�, was organised and chaired by Prof. Dr. B. Meier, Gr�ental, Switzerland. Panelists were Prof. Dr. A.R. Bilia, Florence, Italy, PD Dr. W. Knoess, Bonn, Germany, and Dr. H. Sievers, Vestenbergsgreuth, Germany. According to the current regulations dissolution testings are an essential part in the documentation of HMPs. In the conclusive remarks it was pointed out that the link between biopharmaceutical properties and the efficacy of herbal medicinal products is very complex. Therefore, dissolution characteristics of HMPs will be considered more an aspect of the product's quality rather than criteria for measuring bioavailability. The justification of the phytoequivalence of new products and new galenic forms compared with products of traditional and wellstablished use is another tool for the application of dissolution profiles.The other workshop, �Herbal drug preparations and rhinosinusitis � complex mixtures to manage a complex disease?�, was organised and chaired by Dr. I. Szelenyia, Erlangen, Germany. Panelists were Dr. St. Mauneb, Kiel, Germany, Dr. A. Pahla, Erlangen, Germany and Dr. P. Stiernac, Stockholm, Sweden. The first part of the workshop was dedicated to the classification of rhinosinusitis, defining and describing the various stages of sinusitis ranging from acute to chronic and to the up-oate standard therapies for each stage. The second part of the workshop was focused on the difficulties encountered when trying to preclinically model complex diseases such as rhinosinusitis and to investigate molecular�biological and pharmacodynamic mechanisms of herbal drug preparations. The presentation continued with the analysis of those stages of rhinosinusitis during which herbal therapies are indicated as well as the advantages offered by the herbal drug preparations.Two parallel sessions of short lectures took place on Monday afternoon. One was related to metabolomics, pointing out the possibility to use ion trap mass spectrometry, microflow LC/NMR, GC-S and HPLC-AD, and the other session was dedicated to biopharmaceutical aspects and pharmaceutical technology of HMPs reporting several examples including echinacea extract, silymarin, verbascoside and essential oils. Two other parallel sessions took place on Monday and were addressed to the use of pharmacological test systems in medicinal plant research and to the analythical approaches in the investigations of medicinal plants including hyphenated techniques.A welcome ceremony took place Monday evening in the prestigious Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio. Two lectures on the health benefits of wine were reported by Prof. Dr. M.A. Popp, Newmarkt, Germany, and Prof. Dr. H. Glossmann, Innsbruck, Austria. Lectures were followed by wine and oil testings in the Cortile di Michelozzo in Palazzo Vecchio.The next day was devoted to Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products from non-U countries and Pharmacology of Natural Products.Prof. Dr. R. Bauer, Graz, Austria opened the session with the lecture entitled �Scientific evaluation of traditional HMPs from non-U countries�. He evidenced how in recent years, safety, efficacy and quality of such products have become important issues for health authorities and the public. He gave special emphasis to the evaluation of product safety and reported several examples of medicinal plants from Asia, Africa and South America, which have been scientifically evaluated and have successfully entered the European market, either as medicinal products or as dietary supplements, or which are still in development.During the same session Prof. Dr. D. Guo, Bejing, China, give a lecture entitled �TCMased drug discovery and the main issues in TCM modernization�. TCM represents a rich resource for new drug discovery: there are 12,807 species of traditional Chinese medicines, among which 11,146 are derived from medicinal plants, 1581 are from animals and 80 from minerals. In the past 30�years, over 1200 TCMs have been phytochemically investigated by Chinese scientists, from which a number of bioactive principles have been developed into new drugs and launched into the market. Several typical new drugs derived from TCM resources are artemisinin (an antimalarial drug from A. annua), schisandrin (an antiepatitis C drug from Schisandra chinensis) and indirubin (an anticancer drug from Isatis tinctorius). Prof. Guo reported the quality control issues of several commonly used traditional Chinese medicines including the roots of Salvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen), the skin secretion of Bufo Bufo gargarzans (Chansu), the roots of Paeonia lactiflora (Shaoyao), seeds of Cuscuta chinensis (Tusizi) and the heart wood of Dalbergia odorifera (Jiangxiang).The session on Pharmacology of Natural Products was opened by Prof. G. Colombo, Cagliari, Italy, who gave a lecture entitled �Identification of miltirone as active ingredient of S. miltiorrhiza responsible for the reducing effect of root extracts on alcohol intake in rats�.He reported that extracts from the roots of S. miltiorrhiza, a Chinese medicinal herb, reduced alcohol intake in selectively bred Sardinian alcohol-referring (sP) rats. Miltirone was described as one of the possible active constituents because the effect of four different extracts of S. miltiorrhiza was positively and significantly correlated with their miltirone content.Prof. Dr. H. Wagner, Munich, Germany, gave a speech on the pharmacological synergy effects of phytopreparations and their relevance for therapy. Many examples were reported: Ginkgo biloba, Hypericum, kavaava, Cannabis and Valeriana, as well as with mixed extract combinations (including Passiflora/kavaava, Humulus lupulus/Passiflora and Ginseng/Ginkgo) and outstanding multiextract combinations on the drug market. The positive results of such investigations suggest that this new concept of multidrug therapy can be described as a multitarget therapy, in which each component of the drug mixture affects another pharmacological target, resulting in a multicausal treatment. This evident therapeutic superiority and advantage give phytotherapy a new legitimation for the application of standardized mono-or multiextract combinations.On Tuesday there was the workshop of Regulatory Affairs on HMPs which was organised and chaired by Prof. Dr. A.J. Vlietinck, Antwerp, Belgium. The title was �How to implement the new legislation on HMPs�. Panelists were Prof. Dr. K. Keller, Bonn, Germany, Dr. V. Silano, Roma, Italia, and L. Kabelitz, Vestenbergsgreuth, Germany.The widespread and increasing use worldwide of herbal medicinal products (HMPs) demands that appropriate regulatory actions be undertaken to regulate and harmonize the legal status of plant preparations throughout Europe. For this reason, the newly constituted committee on HMPs (HMPC) installed three drafting groups (ORGAM, Quality and Safety Efficacy). The most urgent tasks of this committee are the establishment of a list of traditional herbal substances and the drafting of community herbal monographs with wellstablished as well as traditional uses. Viewpoints from both the European (K. Keller) and the national authorities (V. Silano) as well as from the pharmaceutical industry (L. Kabelitz) were discussed.Tuesday in the afternoon two parallel sessions of short lectures took place and they were related to traditional HMPs from non-U countries including plant from Africa, Asia, and South America. Sessions dedicated to systematic, cell cultures biosynthesis and physiology of medicinal plants also took place.Wednesday was opened by the plenary lectures of Dr. C. Gerhauser, Heidelberg, Germany, and Prof. Dr. A. D. Kinghorn, Ohio USA dedicated to Botanical Health Products in the Prevention of Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases.Dr. C. Gerhauser spoke about the antingiogenesis as a mechanism in cancer prevention. Inhibition of angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from prexisting microvasculature, represents an innovative approach to cancer chemoprevention. A series of twelve chemopreventive lead compounds, belonging to the chemical classes of phloroglucinol derivatives, anthraquinones, isothiocyanates, flavanones, diterpenes, chalcones and bibenzyl derivatives of lunularic acid have been tested in the labs of the German Cancer Research Center. Two chemopreventive compounds, xanthohumol (XN) from H. lupulus L. and sulforaphane (SFN), an isothiocyanate derived from Brassicaceae have been selected for more detailed investigation of their angiopreventive potential. Both compounds potently inhibited endothelial steps crucial for angiogenesis, including hypoxianduced release of prongiogenic factors, endothelial cell proliferation, migration and differentiation. In addition, XN showed also in vivo efficacy in human MXreast tumour xenografts implanted in dorsal skinfold chamber preparations in female severe combined immunodeficient mice.Prof. Dr. A. D. Kinghorn reported on the potential cancer chemopreventive activity of some botanical dietary supplements. Cancer chemoprevention is an important strategy for managing and controlling cancer, and involves the use of synthetic or natural agents to inhibit, retard, or reverse the process of carcinogenesis, and recently, there has been an increasing interest in the use of certain botanical dietary supplements for �detoxification�. He reported his studies concerning antioxidant and potential cancer chemopreventive activity of noni (Morinda citrifolia), mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana), and sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides).Two parallel workshop sessions were scheduled on Wednesday. The first entitled �Good practices, standards and certifications of starting materials� was organised and chaired by Prof. Dr. Ch. Franz, Vienna, Austria. Panelists were Dr. B. P�tzold, Frankfurt, Germany, Dr. R. Iguera, Milano, Italy, Dr. B. Steinhoff, Bonn, Germany. Most of the plants used in traditional or modern medicines are collected from the wild, just a small portion is large scale or small-ot cultivated. The workshop dealt with several important topics: a sustainable wild collection; issues related to Guidelines for Good Agricultural with respect to Good Wild Crafting Practice for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants and problems related to the presentation of a complete documentation �from seeds to the final product� for obtaining marketing authorisation.Prof. Dr. H. Winterhoff, M�nster, Germany, organised and chaired the workshop on Biological and Pharmacological Activity of Natural Products entitled �Testing for improvement of learning and memory�. Panelists were Prof. Dr. C. Vonhoff, M�nster, Germany, and Prof. Dr. M.F. Melzig, Berlin, Germany. After a general introduction, the panelists described the test systems of Alzheimer's disease and animal models for testing learning behaviour and memory with specific application to HMPs. An important part of the talk dealt with the benefits and disadvantages of the diverse test systems.Two parallel short lecture sessions were addressed in the morning: one related to botanical health products, their use in the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular diseases and the other to the use of pharmacological test systems in medicinal plant research. Antingiogenetic, antioxidant and apoptosis inducing constituents were presented within the first session while constituents with antibacterial, anticancer and immonomodulatory effects were reported in the other session.The Congress had a great success and reviewed by press agencies (11 reports), newspapers (76 reports), radioews (49 reports), television news (18 reports) and by 35 web-ites.

Documents

53rd Annual Congress of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research, a joint meeting with the Italian Society of Phytochemistry — August 21–25, 2005, Florence, Italy