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15th
World Congress Clinical Nutrition
19th
– 22nd September 2010 El Sokhna Resort - Egypt
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Copyright © 2010.
WCCN2010.COM
All rights reserved |
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Collaboration among clinical and agricultural researchers essential for success of natural health products
Suraya Acharya 1 , James Thomas
2
1 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Centre, Lethbridge, Canada;
2 Department of Biological Sciences, Univ Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Canada
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In many countries availability of food is no longer an issue. Rather, maintenance of an active and healthy life without need for expensive medical care or pharmaceutical drugs has become a major goal. To address this issue, many people now depend upon plant-based nutraceuticals or Natural Health Products (NHPs) to supplement their diets. Many of these products are sold through advertisements based on anecdotal evidence and not proper science-based information. Most clinical researchers acknowledge the need for proper science-based information but, have not been able to generate appropriate findings needed, due to lack of funding and the large number of plant products associated with health claims. In addition, research into plant products often has produced conflicting data. The reason for this lies mainly in use of plants without considering their genetic constitution or the place/environment where they were grown. We have found that genotype, environment and their interaction have a significant influence on the chemical properties of plants. It is therefore important that studies on NHPs are done as collaborative efforts with both clinical and agricultural researchers. This research should be directed towards identification of plants with known medicinal properties which have been grown in environments conducive to consistent production of the active agents. We believe that a collaborative effort should be developed to assess the seed, foliage and/or roots from plants so that they can be used directly to take advantage of the synergistic effects of chemical constituents to maximize utilization of their NHPs. Production of dependable medicinal plant products can only be achieved if we pay close attention to research-based principles while growing plants for this purpose.
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