Saturday, June 27, 2009, was registration day for the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Pharmacognosy. Opening symposium covered the history of ASP, with a retrospective look by decade, as well as the history of ASP's Journal of Natural Products, formerly Lloydia, as it was started in 1938 by the Lloyd Library and Museum. Appropriately, ASP's 50th meeting and its 5oth anniversary are being held in Hawaii, which is also celebrating its 50th anniversary as a state in the United States. Dr. Norman Farnsworth, UIC, regaled attendees with possibly questionable (?) versions of what happened at meetings in the first decade, including tales of keg parties in dorms in Rhode Island which were cause for police raids. hmmm.... And, he swears that when ASP finalized a deal with the Lloyd Library to co-publish Lloydia that he and his fellow ASP negotiators celebrated at a burlesque.
We saw many familiar faces, including A. Douglas Kinghorn of Ohio State University and a great supporter of the Lloyd, and Mark Blumenthal of American Botanical Council, who is one of the best "bridges" between the scientific world of plant/natural products science and grass-roots practitioners! Watch for more soon.
On Sunday, the real scientific programs get underway. We'll be working closely, in the days to come, with some ASP members to discuss how we proceed with transferring ASP's wonderful archive collection to the Lloyd in the near future.
Day 2 of ASP's 50th Anniversary meeting. This was the first full day and the start of the scientific programs, which were kicked off by Brad Moore of Scripps Institute of Oceanography who spoke on the ever-evolving face of natural product biosynthesis, including the modification of existing biologic products to create a "library" of molecules. One of the best, and more unique, presentations was by Cindy Angerhofer of the Aveda Corporation who spoke on functional cosmetic products, specifically products with sunscreen and anti-aging products that are derived from botanical products. She spoke of the advantages of green tea, lavender, flavonoids, and other recognizable botanicals which still are some of the best. She provided clinical evidence of the success of their work at Aveda and encouraged other ASP members to consider the seriousness and validity of functional cosmetics. Maggie Heran, Lloyd's Director, took a few moments to speak with Angerhofer about some of the rare and historic volumes at the Lloyd on early cosmetics and aromatherapy, another topic Angerhofer briefly touched upon. Stay tuned for more tomorrow when ASP members are treated to a traditional Hawaiian Luau.
ReplyDeleteDay 3 at ASP. Of most interest today was this afternoon's session on Commercial Botanicals. The first two presentations in that section were of most interest. The first was by Joe Betz from the Office of Dietary Supplements, NIH, who spoke on the progress being made in developing analytical methods, testing documentation, and more in clearing dietary supplements for the market. The second was by Joe-Ann McCoy of the Bent Creek Institute Germplasm Facility. They are at work building a database of plant genes as part of a national project. The Bent Creek project collects plant samples from all over the Appalachian area to create a comprehensive herbarium, seed samples from what McCoy called "the good, the bad, and the ugly" - all plants, all conditions. Part of the work entails collecting plant samples from areas which will not be able to support current plant varieties/species that won't make the transition to higher climate temperatures, as the result of global warming.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the highlight of the day was the luau held at the conference hotel. I confess to skipping trying the poi, but the food was otherwise excellent. We ate with Mark Blumenthal of ABC and his wife, Jackie, along with several other ASP scientists. A fun time was had by all, particularly Norm Farnsworth, of UIC, who as a founding member of ASP, got the chance to dance with the hula girls. Trust me, Norm made the best of it and had a great time entertaining us all!
Day 4, June 30th, at ASP. This was a short day for the ASP meeting in Honolulu with programs only scheduled in the morning. We attended the session chaired by A. Douglas Kinghorn, Lloyd's newest incoming Board member and researcher at Ohio State University. There were a couple of talks from faculty at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, the place where none other than Linnaeus was based. But, the highlight of the morning session was a talk by Geoffrey Cordell, formerly of UIC, on Natural Products Sustainability. Cordell has the unique ability to look at where Pharmacognosy and drug research and development in general fit in the larger picture of where the world is going. He called for membes of ASP and the organization itself to take on an active role in creating and promoting "green" chemistry and "green" pharmaceuticals. Current projections indicate a world population of about 10 billion by 2040 (we're now at about 6 billion) - that's a 45% increase in just 3 decades - which is phenomenal. Concurrently, the rate at which forests are disappearing relates completely to population growth, which means, in short, that we're in trouble globally. Needless to say, Cordell's talk was riveting. And, Maggie Heran got a chance to talk to Cordell for quite a while after the session, and she and I were even able to talk to him where his personal papers are (or aren't) and he is willing to consider the Lloyd as his repository. yay! Watch for news on the final day of the program tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteDay 5 - this was the last day of ASP's 50th anniversary conference. There were some very interesting science talks, once again. The range extended to Peruvian research on veterinary medicine, which was fascinating. We attended the lectures in memory of John W. Daly, a leading researcher on poison dart frogs who passed away a little more than a year ago. Learning about the complexities of where the poison originates in the frogs' diets is an amazing scientific process. The last lecture was the Varro Tyler Prize Lecture, which covered the well-known plant, St. John's Wort. The science covered the exploration of the many active plant constituents, which are most useful, which are side-effect laden, and how to prepare the extract minus the unnecessary constituents. Truly fascinating. Following that was the business meeting and then the excellent closing night banquet.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that we will be trying in the next couple of years is submitting a poster to the poster sessions that covers a topic in one of the scientific sessions that we feel the Lloyd can really provide a wide-array of research services and materials for. It should be a great experiment. And, again, all week, we've met some really great people and made some good contacts. It has been worthwhile, and we look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with ASP.