7th Annual Oxford International Conference on
the Science of Botanicals & American Society
of Pharmacognosy 4th Interim Meeting

April 12th-16th, 2008, University, MS

Critical Approaches to Pre-clinical Evaluation of Botanicals

National Center for Natural Products Research School of Pharmacy
The University of Mississippi

Co-hosted in conjunction with the 4th ASP Interim Meeting

Co-Sponsored by CFSAN/FDA,
Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica/CAS, China
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR - India) and the Society for Medicinal Plant Research (GA)

The National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR) within the School of Pharmacy at The University of Mississippi is pleased to announce a conference on Quality and Safety Issues Related to Botanicals. The conference is supported by a cooperative agreement between the NCNPR and the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This conference is being held in conjunction with the 4th interim ASP meeting. This conference is also being co-sponsored by the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica/CAS, China, The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR - India) and the Society for Medicinal Plant Research (GA).
The purpose of this conference is to review, discuss, and explore methods for determining the identity, purity, quality, and processing of plants, commonly known as botanicals. Topic areas will include such issues as authentication, cultivation, collection, and post-harvest practices for producing quality plant material, and chemical and toxicological methods for quality/safety assessment that lead to the preclinical evaluation of the botanicals. Additionally, there will be dedicated sessions focusing on current pharmacognosy techniques, issues and discoveries. Contributed presentations, both oral and poster, are invited. Each session will open with a plenary speaker outlining the current approaches, limitations, and research needs of the topic area.
Speakers will be leading researchers from industry, academia, nonprofit institutions, and government. Each speaker will address current approaches, limitations, and research needs.

Topics Include:

• Cultivation, Collection and Post Harvest Practices to Produce Quality Botanical Material
• Authentication, Identification and Purity of Botanicals
• Approaches Toward Establishing the Safety and Quality of Botanicals
• Regulatory Aspects for Safety Assessment of Botanical Products
• Natural Products’ Impact on Tropical Diseases
• Recent Advances on CNS Research Utilizing Natural Products

For further information please contact:
Ikhlas Khan, Ph.D.
Assistant Director, NCNPR, School of Pharmacy,
Thad Cochran Research Center
University, MS 38677
Phone: (662) 915-7821
Fax: (662) 915-7989
E-mail: ICSB@olemiss.edu