Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product ResearchGesellschaft für Arzneipflanzen- und Naturstoff-Forschung e.V.

NEWSLETTER

NEWSLETTER

Dear members,

The 61st International Congress and Annual Meet-ing of the Society for Medicinal Plant and NaturalProduct Research (GA) has been held in Münster,Germany, from September 1–5 this year. Withabout 755 participants, various workshops, excit-ing plenary and short lectures, a lot of interestingposters and an attractive social program the con-gress was very successful. Many thanks to thechairs of the congress, Prof. Andreas Hensel andProf. Thomas J. Schmidt, and their team for a per-fect organization. The abstracts of all presenta-tions of the congress have been published inPlanta Medica and can be downloaded by GAmembers from the GA homepage in the members’area. In the opening ceremony of the congresseight travel grants could be presented by GA toyoung participants of the congress. Prof. Dr. San-dra Apers (Antwerp, Belgium) received the Egon-Stahl-Award in Silver and Prof. Dr. Robert Fürst(Frankfurt, Germany) was winner of the BionoricaPhytoneering Award 2013. In a special session the60 years anniversary of Planta Medica, the officialorgan of GA, was celebrated. For the first timealso the most innovative publication in PlantaMedica of the year 2012 was awarded and winnerwas Prof. Susan Murch (University of British Co-lumbia, Canada). Of course all members of GA arealso asked to help to ensure the high standard ofPlanta Medica by submitting high quality papers.A comprehensive report on the Annual GA-Meet-ing you can find later in this Newsletter.Before the beginning of the congress a GA-BoDMeeting on Saturday and Sunday morning tookplace in order to discuss a lot of GA-affairs. Duringthe Members Meeting on Tuesday evening, theExC and the BoD of GA for the period 2014/15have been newly elected. The minutes of themembers meeting including the detailed results ofthe elections are published in this Newsletter.Prof. Matthias Hamburger has been elected as thenew president of GA. I heartily congratulate him

Message from the President

2013, No. 2

GA

and wish him a successful presidency. Prof. AnnaRita Bilia and me have been elected as vice pres-idents, and Dr. Bernd Roether as treasurer and Dr. Birgit Benedek as secretary again. I want tothank all colleagues from the previous ExC andBoD very much for the good collaboration and alltheir support. Special thanks go to Prof. BrigitteKopp who was vice president of GA for the lasttwo years after her presidency for 4 years and along period as vice-President and BoD-Member inthe time before. She has always shown greatcommitment to GA’s interests.The next and 62nd Annual Congress of our Societywill be held at the University of Minho in Gui -marães, Portugal, August 31 – September 4, 2013.It will mainly be organised by Prof. Dr. Alberto Diasand AFERP (Association Francophone pour l’En-seignement et la Recherche en Pharmacognosie)will participate by organising an own session onspecific topics. For details see the announcementin this newsletter and on the GA-homepage. At theGA-Congress in Guimarães three awards and onescholarship will be presented: The Egon StahlAward in Gold, the Egon Stahl Award in Bronze,the Dr. Willmar Schwabe Award and the Dr. Will-mar Schwabe Scholarship for Young Scientists.These Awards and the scholarship are announcedin this newsletter, but also on the GA homepageand in Planta Medica. Applications of GA-mem-bers are very welcome.GA had applied for the 7th framework program ofthe European Union and became a validated part-ner being able to participate in European and international projects as a legal entity. Now withHorizon 2020 the next EU’s programme for re-search and innovation will start in 2014 and rununtil 2020 with an immense budget. A short infor-mation about Horizon 2020 can be found in thisnewsletter. The new foundation “Plants for Health”, which hasbeen created by GA, again asks for financial sup-port by GA members in order to be able to providefunding of research networks, innovative projectsand junior research groups and to promote re-search activities in the field of medicinal plant re-search. More details you can find later in thisnewsletter and on the GA homepage.Fortunately the number of GA-members com-pared to data presented one year ago increasedto about 1.450 members from all over the worldnow. In the course of the congress in Münster aswell as in the last months again some more scien-tists from various countries became members ofGA, they all are very welcome.I wish all of you a happy, healthy and successfulyear 2014 and I’m looking forward to see many ofyou at least at the Annual GA-Congress 2014 inGuimarães in Portugal.

Cordially,Wolfgang BlaschekGA President

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Notes from the Society

All contributions for the GA-Newsletter are welcome.

Deadline for submission is fixed to May 20th 2014.

Please send all contributions by e-mail:

Prof. Dr. A. HenselUniversity of Münster,

Institute for Pharmaceutical Biology and Phytochemistry,

Corrensstrasse 48, D-48149 Münster, Germanyahensel@uni-muenster.de

Editorial remark

A Foundation of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research (GA)

A new foundation supporting research intoall aspects of medicinal plants and naturalproducts has been created by the Societyfor Medicinal Plant and Natural ProductResearch (GA) and is asking for your sup-port.

Medicinal and natural product research isthriving all over the world. There is a con-siderable interest in this field of researchespecially from younger scientists. This isalso an area of tremendous interest for thegeneral public with new products offeringopportunities for farmers, producers andretailers. However, there is a consistentand deepening lack of public funding par-ticularly for projects which are at an earlystage of development.

Our key goal is to support highly innovativeand multidisciplinary research projectswhich will strengthen the academic basisof medicinal plant and natural product re-search and to nurture emerging researchnetworks.

Specifically the Foundation will:• Initiate scientific collaboration and the

development of research networks• Provide start-up funding for innovative

projects• Provide start-up funding for best in class

junior research groups and their leaders.

The funds will initially be used for traveland equipment facilitating proof-of-con-cept projects. Your donation will help tofoster innovation and research in the fieldsof medicinal plant and natural product re-search and you will benefit from tax con-cessions (depending on your tax statusand the regulations in your country of res-idence).

The foundation will be managed by thechairman Prof. Dr. R. Bauer (Graz, Austria)together with Prof. Dr. M. Heinrich (Lon-don, UK), Prof. Dr. A. Hensel (Münster,Germany) together with Dr. B. Roether(Neumarkt, Germany) as an adviser.

Contributions can be made to:Recipient: Foundation ‘Plants for Health’Bank: UniCredit Bank AG

Oberer Markt 4292318 Neumarkt, Germany

IBAN: DE26 7602 0070 0018 2195 90BIC.: HYVEDEMM460

For further enquiries, please contact theChairman of the Foundation Board, Prof.Rudolf Bauer (rudolf.bauer@uni-graz.at),the President of GA, Prof. Matthias Ham-burger (Matthias.Hamburger@unibas.ch),or visit the website www.ga-online.org/plants-for-health.

On behalf of the many researchers in thisfield, thank you very much in advance foryour support.

Plants for Health

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Some Data from the Membership Data Base

New GA members

Since May 2013 the following 90 membershave joined our Society. GA warmly welcomes all new membersand hopes that the Society may get an in-ternational platform for many scientific andpersonal contacts.

Chika Abba, Nigeria; Dr. Kamal El-Din AbdEl-hak Mohamed Aboud, Egypt; Dr. Awo-dayo Adepiti, Nigeria; Amma. G. Ado-mako-Bonzu, United Kingdom; EzeAjaegbu, Nigeria; Dr. Peter O. Ajagbonna,Nigeria; Daniel Ajaghaku, Nigeria; Inno-cent Ajawobu, Nigeria; Herve SergiAkone, Germany; Aljawhara Alquathama,United Kingdom; Dr. Madhavi Anne, India;Messay Anshebo, Ethiopia; Dr. AmaniAwaad, Saudi Arabia; Marcus Ayoola,Nigeria; Pravin Badhe, United Kingdom;Dr. Dayang Fredalina Basri, Malaysia; RitaFrema Boadu, Ghana; Yaun DuahBoakye, Ghana; Alen Bozicevic, Switzer-land; Ya-Chih Chang, Taiwan, Province ofChina; Priyanka Chaudhary, India;Antigoni Cheilari, Austria; Dr. EricssonCoy-Barrera, Colombia; NunziatinaDetommasi, Italy; Prof. Alberto Dias, Por-

tugal; Dibyendu Dutta Majumdar, Ger-many; Prof. Dr. Hesham El-Askary, Egypt;Charity Ezea, Nigeria; M. Gnanamorthy,India; Prasanna Govindarajan, India;Moritz Graf vom Hagen-Plettenberg,Germany; Sebastian Granica, Poland; Dr.Maria Groot, Netherlands; Clizia Guc-cione, Italy; Prof. Hanaa Hamdy Ahmed,Egypt; Heike Hofert, Germany; Dr. Mo-hamed Mostafa Ibrahim, Egypt; Dr.Hongyu Jin, China; Antoine Kada Sanda,Cameroon; Dr. Uche Kanife, Nigeria; Kar-men Kapp, Helsinki; Dr. Heng Yen Khong,Malaysia; Dr. Emelia Kisseih, Germany;Vasilios Koumentakis, Greece; SonjaKrstin, Germany; Dr. Chris Kumi, Canada;Dr. Matthias Lorenz, Germany; Dr. ShuangCheng Ma, China; Prof. Olubunmi Mag-bagbeola, Nigeria; Dr. Nurkhasanah Mah-fudh, Indonesia; Dr. Joe-Ann McCoy,United States of America; Dr. IlhemMechemache, Algeria; Dr. Alain Meli Lan-nang, Cameroon; Inés Méndez Tovar,Spain; Dr. Ruta Mickiene, Lithuania; Dr.Neelam Misra, Nigeria; Dr. KhamsahMohd, Malaysia; Dr. Marizvikuru Mwale,South Africa; Dr. Kakha Nadiradze, Geor-

gia; Flore Nardella, France; Florence Nke-mehule, Nigeria; Norhayati Nordin,Malaysia; Ogonna Nwankwo, Nigeria; Dr.Nicholas Oberlies, United States of Amer-ica; Samuel Odediran, Nigeria; Dr. JosephOlagunju, Nigeria; Ejlal Abdulrazig Omer,Sudan; Dr. Akhere Omonkua, Nigeria; Dr.Iyere Ondagbe, Nigeria; Dr. Felix Onyeg-bule, Nigeria; Sumalee Panthong, Thai-land; Jakub Piwowarski, Poland; Ms. Sei-djolo Quenum, Germany; Ms. RuchilakRattarom, Thailand; Olfa Rbia, Tunisia;Dr. Ulrike Reusner, Germany; ResearchInstitute for Medicinal Plants Ltd., Hun-gary; Ben Rockefeller, Belgium; MariaEleni Sakavitsi, Greece; Intouch Sak-pakdeejaroen, Thailand; Dr. Ramachan-dran Sarojini Santhosh, India; Dr. BuketSarikaya, Turkey; Dr. Qingyao Shou, Aus-tralia; Imen Smida, France; ClaudiaSouza, Brazil; Dr. Lerluck Steinrut, Thai-land; Blessing Umeokoli, Nigeria; Dr. Al-varo Viljoen, South Africa; Dr. Feng Wei,China; Stefan Wiesneth, Germany.

Dr. Birgit Benedek, GA Secretary

Egon Stahl Award in Silver 2013 for Sandra Apers

The aim of the Egon Stahl Award in Silveris to recognize and promote young scien-tists working in the field of Pharmacog-nosy (Pharmaceutical Biology) and Analyt-ical Phytochemistry. The silver medal andan award of 3,000 € is given to scientistsup to the age of about forty, who havepublished outstanding scientific work dur-ing the years following their graduation. Onoccasion of the Annual GA-Congress 2013in Münster, Germany, the award was pre-sented to Prof. Dr. Sandra Apers from theUniversity of Antwerp in Belgium.Sandra Apers graduated as pharmacist atthe University of Antwerp in 1995 and thenspecialised in Industrial Pharmacy. With ascholarship of the Fund for Scientific Re-search Flanders she could start research in1996 at the University of Antwerp. In 2000she got her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sci-ences with a thesis on structure elucida-tion and biological evaluation of activeconstituents of different medicinal plants(Maesa lanceolata, Aleurites moluccana,

Quassia africana). From 2000 till 2006 in apost-doc position at the University ofAntwerp she was engaged in the fields ofisolation and structure elucidation of natu-ral compounds and analytical develop-ment and validation of methods. In 2006she became Professor in PharmaceuticalAnalysis at the University of Antwerp. She

has published more than 100 papersmainly in the field of isolation and charac-terisation of secondary metabolites of me-dicinal plants also in collaboration with re-search groups of Pharmacology and Phar-maceutical Technology. She has a man-date as the Belgian expert in the EuroeanPharmacopoeia Commission 13A on Phar-macognosy. Today she is an internation-ally recognized scientist with many collab-orations and invitations for oral presenta-tions.The Egon-Stahl-Award in silver went toProf. Dr. Sandra Apers for her research inthe areas of isolation, structure elucidationand biological activity of natural productsas well as the development of innovativemethods for the analysis and quality con-trol of herbal medicinal preparations. OnMonday morning in the course of theopening ceremony of the GA-CongressSandra Apers gave an award lecture enti-tled “Scientifically based, high-quality phy-totherapeutics”.

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Bionorica Phytoneering Award 2013 for Robert Fürst

The Bionorica Phytoneering Award (BPA)acknowledges outstanding research anddevelopment with regard to medicinalplants. Scientists normally younger than 45 yearsof age from all over the world shall be mo-tivated to perform research with regard toherbal drugs focusing on phytoanalytics,pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, phy -tomedicine, analytical approaches includ-ing active principles, metabolomic ap-proaches, research leading to the identifi-cation of new pharmacological mecha-nisms and new techniques especially ap-plied for herbal drugsThe award is endowed with 10000 €. TheAwarding Institution is GA, the endowingsponsor is the company BIONORICA inNeumarkt, Germany.This year, the award was given to Prof. Dr.Robert Fürst from the University of Frank-furt, Germany, for his excellent scientificwork in investigating novel molecularmechanisms of herbal compounds and ex-tracts in the area of inflammation, angio-genesis and endothelial interactions.Robert Fürst after school first studiedphysics at the Technical University of Mu-nich and closed with a pre-Diploma. In

1996 he started to study Pharmacy at theLudwig-Maximilian University of Munichand got his 2nd state examination in 2000and his 3rd state examination in 2001. In2002 at the Department of Pharmacy atthe University of Munich he started hisPhD-research activities in PharmaceuticalBiology concerning the identification andinduction of MKP-1 as central mediator ofcytoprotective effects in human endothe-

lial cells. From 2005 until 2007 after havingfinished his PhD-Thesis he was post-docat the Chair of Pharmaceutical Biology atthe University of Munich. In 2011 he gotthe Venia legendi for “Pharmaceutical Biol-ogy” and “Pharmacology for Natural Sci-ences” with research on mitigating inflam-matory processes by biogenic com-pounds. Since end of 2012 he is Professorof Pharmaceutical Biology at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Healready has got some other awards, as in2005 the Carl-Wilhelm-Scheele-Award ofthe German Pharmaceutical Society aswell as in 2007 the Rudolf-Buchheim-Award of the German Society for Clinicaland Experimental Pharmacology and Tox-icology. He is author or co-author of morethan 30 high quality papers, many of themdealing with molecular mechanisms of ac-tion of natural compounds as well as rele-vant bioassays regarding endotheliumpharmacology. At the opening ceremony of the GA-Con-gress on Monday morning Robert Fürstgave an award lecture entitled “Novel ex-tra-cardiac actions of the Crataegus ex-tract WS 1442: Functional and molecularinsights”.

Travel grant winners for GA 2013 conference in Münster, Germany

GA was able to sponsor several travelgrants for graduate students and a post-doctoral fellow to attend the 61st Interna-tional Congress and Annual Meeting of theSociety for Medicinal Plant and NaturalProduct Research, Sept. 01-05, 2013 inMünster, Germany. The GA travel grantcommittee 2013 consisted of Hebba AbdelAziz, Elke Heiss and Judith Rollinger. Thecommittee had received a total of 12 appli-cations and finally eight travel grants could

be awarded on a competitive basis fromamong the accepted abstracts. The GAcongratulates the following recipients:

PhD Student Level

Hilal Baradakci, Turkey 800 €Monica Gabriela Mielke, Germany 400 €Ismali O. Ishola, Nigeria 2000 €Eirini Kouloura, Greece 800 €

Sarah Öttl, Austria 700 €Nkeoma Nkasi Okoye, Nigeria 2000 €Matthias Onyebuchi Agbo, Nigeria 2000 €

Postdoctoral Fellow Level (for Young Researchers from developingcountries)

Amira Motaal, Egypt 1500 €

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8th Young Researchers Workshop AwardeesThe Young Researchers Workshop onSunday afternoon at the 61st InternationalCongress and Annual Meeting of GA,Sept. 01– 05, 2013 in Münster, Germanywas chaired by Prof. Deniz Tasdemir (Na-tional University of Ireland, Galway) andProf. Anna Rita Bilia (University of Flo-rence). In the closing ceremony of the con-

gress six awards (sponsored by BionoricaSE) for best short lectures at the YoungResearchers Workshop were given to:

– Sarah K. Öttl, University of Innsbruck,Austria

– Diana C. Rueda, University of Basel,Switzerland

– Ludivine Riffault, University of d‘Orleans, France

– Karmen Kapp, University of Helsinki,Finnland

– Steffen Neumann, Philipps UniversityMarburg, Germany

– Rebamang A. Mosa, University of Zululand, South Africa

GA 2013 Poster Awards

At the 61st International Congress and An-nual Meeting of GA, Sept. 01– 05, 2013 inMünster, Germany, out of a great numberof nearly 600 posters 6 were nominated tobe outstanding and poster awards werepresented on a highly competitive basis tothe following author groups for the follow-ing posters:

C.E. Mair, U. Grienke, S. von Grafenstein,J. Kirchmair, K.R. Liedl, M. Schmidtke,J.M. Rollinger: Bioprospecting diverseplant species for antiviral agents aginstupper respiratory tract infections.

L.L. Orduz-Diaz, D.A. Barrera-Adame,E.D. Coy-Barrera: 8-O-4‘-connectedneolignans as antileishmanial agents:an exploration by molecular docking.

B. Paulsen, K. Innerjerdingen, A.M.Fjellestad, M. Cheung, A. Denou, D. Diallo: Plants used in Mali againstmalaria and their content of polysac-charides with immunomodulatory prop-erties.

C.C. Costa, F. Müller-Uri, W. Kreis: VEP1-encoded enone 1,4-reductases fromBrassicaceae: cloning, expression, molecular phylogeny and modelling.

J.M. Schmuch, K. Köller, S. Becker, A. Podbielski, A. Hensel: Proantho-cyanidin-enriched extract of Rumexacetosa L. inhibits the in vitro adhesionof Porphyromonas gingivalis to KB cellsand decreases the biofilm formation.

O. Potterat, M. Gerodetti, M. Oufir, K. Fürer, M. Mennet-von Eiff, R. Brenn eisen, U. von Mandach, M. Hamburger: Quantification byUPLC-MRM ESI-MS of bufadienolidesin Bryophyllum pinnatum leaves andmanufactured products.

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Announcement of the Egon-Stahl-Award in Bronze 2014 by the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research

On the occasion of his 60th birthday, Pro-fessor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Egon Stahl do-nated a medal, a document and a mone-tary prize in order to recognize and pro-mote young scientists working in the fieldsof Pharmacognosy (Pharmaceutical Biol-ogy) and Analytical Phytochemistry.As a rule, the bronze medal and an awardof € 1,500 will be given to young scholarsup to the age of about thirty whose thesiswas of outstanding quality. The prize willbe awarded during the 62nd InternationalCongress and Annual Meeting of GA inGuimarães (Portugal), 31 August – 5 Sep-tember 2014.

Members of the Society for MedicinalPlant and Natural Product Research (GA)are invited to submit nominations for can-didates together with supporting data.Nominations of oneself cannot be consid-ered.A nomination for the prize has to include acurriculum vitae incorporating the candi-date’s scientific career, an index on her/hispublications, and reprints of several ofher/his more recent publications. All publi-cations can be taken into consideration.

All documents have to be submitted inelectronic form (as CD in 5 copies). Dead-line for submission is March 15, 2014.

November 2013Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Blaschek,GA President

Documents to are be sent to:Prof. Dr. Matthias Hamburger, Institute ofPharmaceutical Biology, Department ofPharmaceutical Sciences, University ofBasel, Klingelbergstraße 50, CH-4056Basel, Switzerland, e-mail: matthias.ham-burger@unibas.ch

Announcement of the Egon-Stahl-Award in Gold 2014 by the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product ResearchThe Egon-Stahl-Award in Gold is the high-est scientific honour of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Re-search (GA). It can be awarded every thirdyear.The Egon-Stahl-Award in Gold acknow -ledges the outstanding scientific lifetimeoeuvre of an eminent scientist who hasbeen closely attached to PharmaceuticalBiology (Pharmacognosy, Chemistry ofNatural Products) throughout his scientificcareer.The prize will be awarded during the 62nd

International Congress and Annual Meet-ing of GA in Guimarães (Portugal), 31 Au-gust – 5 September 2014. The award win-ner will be invited to present a lecture.Nominations can be made by all regularmembers of the Society for Medicinal

Plant and Natural Product Research. Nom-inations of oneself can not be considered.Nominations should be submitted to thePresident of the Society for MedicinalPlant and Natural Product Research.The following must be enclosed with thenomination:• a detailed appreciation of the scientific

oeuvre of the proposed candidate• names of experts who could be con-

sulted

The Executive Council of the Society forMedicinal Plant and Natural Product Re-search will give expert advice about thenominations submitted and make a selec-tion. The President is free to consult furtherexperts.

The Egon-Stahl-Award in Gold is endowedwith € 5.000.All documents have to be submitted inelectronic form (as CD in 5 copies). Dead-line for submission is May 1, 2014.

December 2013Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Blaschek,GA President

Documents are to be sent to:Prof. Dr. Matthias Hamburger, Institute ofPharmaceutical Biology, Department ofPharmaceutical Sciences, University ofBasel, Klingelbergstraße 50, CH-4056Basel, Switzerland, e-mail: matthias.ham-burger@unibas.ch

Lecture of Fahimeh Moradi-Afrapoli, winner of the Dr. Willmar Schwabe Research Scholarship for Young Scientists 2012 at ICNPR 2012The last year’s winner of the Dr. WillmarSchwabe Research Scholarship for YoungScientists 2012 at the New York Joint-Meeting was Ms. Moradi-Afrapoli, Mazan-daran University of Medical Sciences, Iran(see Newsletter 2012-2). After 6 monthwork at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology (Prof. Matthias Hamburger), De-

partment of Pharmaceutical Sciences,University of Basel, this year in Münstershe presented the results of her investiga-tions in a lecture on in vitro transport stud-ies with kaempferol and its anxiolyticmetabolite 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (4-HPAA) in human cell models. She couldshow that kaempferol can cross both, in-

testinal and blood-brain barriers with mod-erate permeability, whereas 4-HPAA onlyshowed low permeability in both barriermodels. As i.p. injection of 4-HPAA in miceinduces anxiolytic activity, eventually al-ready small amounts of 4-HPAA enteringthe brain are sufficient for bioactivity.

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Announcement of the Dr. Willmar Schwabe Award 2014by the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural ProductResearch

The Dr. Willmar Schwabe Award acknow -ledges outstanding results of pharmaco-logical and/or clinical research in the fieldof herbal medicinal products. The award isendowed with 10,000 € by the endowingsponsor Dr. Willmar Schwabe GmbH,Karls ruhe (Germany).The aim of the award is to motivateyounger scientists (preferably 40 years oryounger) to resolve phytotherapeutical andphytopharmaceutical problems in an inter-disciplinary approach, in order to supportthe evidence-based use of natural prod-ucts.

Research groups and scientists of univer-sities and other non-commercial scientificinstitutions are entitled to apply. Scientificapplications to be nominated (consistingof up to three relevant scientific publica-tions on a specific topic which have beenpublished during the last three years, theCV(s) and the list(s) of publications) mustbe submitted to the president of GA inelectronic form (as CD-Rs in five copies)until April 5, 2014.The Dr. Willmar Schwabe Award will bebestowed during the 62nd InternationalCongress and Annual Meeting of GA inGuimarães (Portugal), 31 August – 5 Sep-

tember 2014. The award winner(s) willpresent their findings in a lecture at thecongress.

December 2013Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Blaschek,GA President

Documents are to be sent to: Prof. Dr. Matthias Hamburger, Institute ofPharmaceutical Biology, Department ofPharmaceutical Sciences, University ofBasel, Klingelbergstraße 50, CH-4056Basel, Switzerland, e-mail: matthias.ham-burger@unibas.ch

Announcement of the Dr. Willmar Schwabe Research Scholarship for Young Scientists by the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research

Awarding Institution: Society for Medici-nal Plant and Natural Product Research(GA)Endowing Sponsor: Dr. Willmar SchwabeGmbH & Co. KG, Karlsruhe (Germany)Endowment: 10,000 EUROFrequency: upon announcement

ObjectiveThe aim of the Dr. Willmar Schwabe Re-search Scholarship for Young Scientistsis to support research of young scientists,especially from developing countries inleading research institutions. Projects fo-cusing on pharmacological or clinical re-search of phytopharmaceuticals and theiractive substances are particularly wel-come. The award is exclusively used fortravelling and living costs of the awardeeand not for consumables. A duration of atleast 6 months is mandatory.

Criteria for Application• Advanced (year 2 onwards) PhD stu-

dents and postdocs.• In case of similar scientific quality of ap-

plications applicants from developingcountries shall have priority.

• GA membership for at least one yearprior to application, with paid fees.

• Age: preferably 30 years of age (post-docs) or younger (PhD students).

• The hosting institution states in the Let-ter of Acceptance that (i) it is prepared tocover the cost of consumables used forthe research project, (ii) that the studentwill have an adequate laboratory infra-

structure and, (iii) that a tutor is assignedwho will supervise the applicant duringhis/her stay.

Documents for Application• Letter of Motivation (applicant)• Letter of Support (supervisor)• CV and list of publications• Project description including experimen-

tal design, time schedule and justifica-tion why the research shall be performedin the respective institution

• Letter of Acceptance (hosting institution)• Confirmation of the host institution to

cover the laboratory costs (consum-ables)

• Specification of costs for travelling andliving

All documents have to be submitted to thepresident of the Society for Medicinal Plantand Natural Product Research in elec-tronic form (as CD-Rs in 5 copies).

JuryThe president of the Society for MedicinalPlant and Natural Product Research ap-points at least 2 independent experts toevaluate the applications.The jury will select the awardee on the ba-sis of the expert reports.The jury consists of the President and theVice-presidents of the Society for Medici-nal Plant and Natural Product Research,the Editor-in-Chief of Planta Medica, and arepresentative of Dr. Willmar SchwabeGmbH & Co. KG.

Further detailsThe Dr. Willmar Schwabe ResearchScholarship for Young Scientists will bebestowed in a ceremony during the 62nd

International Congress and Annual Meet-ing of GA in Guimarães (Portugal), 31 Au-gust – 5 September 2014.The scientific results of the project shall bepresented during the next annual con-gress, preferably in a short lecture.The awardee has to prepare a final reporton the project supported by this grant.This report has to be signed by the head ofthe host institution. A copy of the signedreport has to be sent to the GA presidentand to Dr. Willmar Schwabe GmbH & Co.KG. In case of publication of the results theaward has to be mentioned in the Ac-knowledgement.

The deadline for submissions for the 2014announcement is March 31, 2014.

December 2013Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Blaschek,GA President

Documents are to be sent in electronicform (as CD in 5 copies) to:Prof. Dr. Matthias Hamburger, Institute ofPharmaceutical Biology, Department ofPharmaceutical Sciences, University ofBasel, Klingelbergstraße 50, CH-4056Basel, Switzerland, e-mail: matthias.ham-burger@unibas.ch

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Minutes of GA Members Meeting 2013

The Members Meeting took place duringthe annual congress in Münster on 3 Sept.2013 from 6.40 – 8.00 pm. 156 GA mem-bers attended the meeting.

1. Approval of the AgendaPresident Prof. W. Blaschek welcomedall participants. The agenda, publishedin the GA Newsletter 1-2013, was un -animously approved.

2. Approval of the Minutes of the Members MeetingThe minutes of the previous MembersMeeting on 30 July 2012 in New York,published in the GA Newsletter 2-2012,were unanimously approved.

3. Annual reports3.1 Report of the President

Prof. W. Blaschek• The participation of AFERP, ASP,

PSE, SIF in the GA Congress2016 / Copenhagen was askedfor at the NY Congress and all so-cieties agreed.

• He wrote a Welcome Address forthe 13th Int. Congress of Societyfor Ethnopharmacology Sept.2– 6, 2012, Graz, Austria.

• On 27 Sept. 2012 he met A.Hensel and T. Schmidt in Münsterand discussed the program andthe abstract review system for theGA-Congress 2013.

• He participated in the ShanghaiInt. Conference on TCM and Nat-ural Medicine, Oct 20–21, 2012,Shanghai, China, and presented alecture: Medicinal and NutritionalBenefit of Seaweeds used in TCM.

• He prepared the following contri-butions for the GA-Newsletter 2-2012: Message from the Presi-dent / Announcement of Awards(ESA Silver, BPA, SchwabeScholarship) / Report on Award-Lectures NY: ESA Bronze(Grienke), WSA (Heiss), SchwabeScholarship 2011 (Lesjak), WinnerSchwabe Scholarship (Moradi-Afrapoli) / Report on Travel grantwinners for ICNPR 2012, NY.

• He chaired the ExC-Meeting on 6December 2012 in Vienna.

• He chaired the BoD-Meeting on18 January 2013 in Vienna.

• He participated in the Sympo-sium 80 Jahre Bionorica on 27February 2013 in Berlin.

• He participated in the Phytocon -gress (GPT) March 7–9 2013 inLeipzig and presented a lecture:Pflanzliche Arzneimittel: Stellungu. Regulatorisches in Europa.

• On 14 March 2013 he had a tele-fon conference with Dr. Wenzel(Programmplanerin / programplanner), Dr. Schiller (Verlagsleiter/ publishing manager) and Dr.Wiegers (Verlagsbereichsleiter /manager of publishing section) of

Thieme Publishers about PlantaMedica Letters.

• On 23 April 2013 he attended themeeting „Zukunft Phytotherapie“in Munich (website: http://www.zukunft-phytotherapie.de) in whichthe following institutions are in-volved: GA / AMT (Arbeitskreis fürMikrobiologische Therapie) / KFN(Komitee Forschung Naturmedi-zin) / Kooperation Phytophar-maka / BPI / BAH / Hufelandge-sellschaft / Gesellschaft für Phy-totherapie / Ärztegesellschaft fürErfahrungsheilkunde / ZAEN / AGfür Naturheilverfahren im Akut -krankenhaus.

• He prepared the following contri-butions for the GA-Newsletter 1-2013: Message from the Presi-dent / Invitation to membersmeeting at GA-Congress Münster(incl. announcement of electionsof BoD) / Announcement of theGA-Congress in Portugal / Orbit-uary for Andrew Marston (writtenby Prof. Hostettmann).

• He coordinated the award juriesfor ESA Silver / BPA and partici-pated in the evaluation of appli-cants.

• He was involved in abstract eval-uation for the GA-Congress inMünster.

• He chaired the GA-ExC-Meetingon 13 June 2013 in Vienna.

3.2 Reports of the Vice-Presidents3.2.1 Report of Vice-President

Prof. B. Kopp• She participated in the ISE meet-

ing in Sept. 2012 in Graz as rep-resentative from GA. The sympo-sium was successful, 400 partici-pants attended the meeting.

• She participated in the farewallsymposium for Prof. ChlodwigFranz in Vienna on 27 Sept. 2012.She handed over a glass cube inthe name of GA.

• She was involved in the abstractevaluation for the GA congress inMünster.

• She acted as member of the juryfor the ESA in Silver and Bionor-ica Phytoneering Award and par-ticipated in the evaluation of ap-plicants.

• She participated in the 80 yearsBionorica symposium on 27 Feb2013 in Berlin

• As one of the GA representativesshe was involved in programmeplanning of the 3. InternationalerKongress Phytotherapie 2014,18-21 June 2014, Winterthur,Switzerland

3.2.2 Report of Vice-PresidentProf. M. Hamburger

• He liaised with Anna Jäger for theJoint Congress in Copenhagen.

• He liaised with Alberto Dias forGA Congress 2014 in Braga.

• He was involved in the abstractevaluation for the GA Congress inMünster.

3.3 Report of the Secretary Dr. B. BenedekProf. Blaschek reported on behalfof Dr. Benedek who was not partic-ipating:• She was in charge of much corre-

spondence.• Members statistics: GA currently

(as of 25.08.2013) has 1397 ac-tive members. 750 members paythe regular fee of 60 EUR, 582members pay the reduced fee of20 EUR. GA has 35 companymembers. 30 members are freedfrom membership fees: 10 thereofare Honorary Members, for 20members the fees have beenwaived due to more than 40 yearsof GA membership.

• Prof. Blaschek thanked Dr.Benedek for her efforts.

3.4 Report of the Treasurer Dr. B. Roether• He reported about the current fi-

nancial situation of GA:• The total assets of GA stocks and

bonds: 145,913.85 EUR (fundsvalue: 46,530.23 EUR, cash:99,383.62 EUR)

• The Egon Stahl fund currentlyamounts to 58,068 EUR (fundsvalue: 52,000 EUR, cash: 6,068EUR).

• The revenues in 2013 were59,140 EUR so far (status 08/2013, budget 2013: 71,200 EUR),the expenses in 2013 were22,689 EUR so far (status 08/2013, budget: 102,900 EUR),leading to a saldo (revenues mi-nus expenses) of +36,451 EUR sofar (status 08/2013, budget: –31,700 EUR).

• A discount for membership feesis planned: members who pay 5years in advance shall get a dis-count of 10%. The advantage isthe lower administration costs,disadvantages include the in-creased difficulty to plan thebudget and no possibility of anoverview about advanced pay-ments.

• Foundation “Plants for Health”: afinancial endowment is plannedor has been submitted by the fol-lowing companies: Schwabe(10.000 EUR), Salus Haus (5.000EUR), WALA (2.500 EUR),Steigerwald (2.500 EUR). Anamount of 30,000 EUR is plannedto be submitted by the GA.

• Prof. Blaschek asked all mem-bers for financial support for theFoundation.

9

• Planta Medica online subscrip-tions: 19 members have sub-scribed to PM online back to1998, 26 members back to 1953.

• Prof. E. Stahl-Biskup presentedthe Report of the Auditors (Prof.Dr. E. Stahl-Biskup and Dr. B.Frank). She states that expendi-tures and revenues are plausibleand appropriate, and she ex-presses her compliments for agood accounting and cost aware-ness. She remarks that there is atendency to a general decreaseof the assets.

3.5 Discharge of the ExecutiveCouncil• Based on the Report of the Audi-

tors Prof. E. Stahl-Biskup askedfor the discharge of the Treasurerand the whole ExC which was ac-cepted unanimously by the wholeassembly.

4. Report of the Editor-in-Chief ofPlanta Medica Prof. L. Pieters•The impact factor of Planta Medica is

currently 2.348•Concerning the past and present de-

velopment of Planta Medica Prof.Pieters referred to the slides pre-sented on 2. Sept. on occasion of theAnniversary Ceremony: “60 Years ofPlanta Medica” (Luc Pieters, MatthiasHamburger)

•On Sept. 2 at the GA-Congress inMünster he chaired the workshop“How to publish a Scientific Paper”.

•The next Planta Medica EditorialBoard Meeting will take place on Fri-day, Oct 25, 10:30–17:00 in Frankfurtat the Airport Conference Center.

5. Reports of the Permanent Commit-tees (PC)•PC “Biological and Pharmacological

Activity of Natural Products” (V. But-terweck / G. Vollmer): will have a ses-sion 2014 at the GA-Congress inGuimaraes, Portugal.

•PC “Breeding and Cultivation of Me-dicinal Plants” (O. Kayser / I. Goehler):will have a session 2014 in at the GA-Congress in Guimaraes, Portugal. O.Kayser chaired the COST Workshop“Metabolic Pathway Engineering ofSecondary Natural Products” on Sep-tember 1 at the GA-Congress in Mün-ster.

•PC “Manufacturing and Quality Con-trol of HMPs” (C. Erdelmeier / newCo-Chair Dr. Sybille Buchwald-Wer -ner, Vital Solutions, Germany): theWorkshop “Current Aspects in Manu-facturing of Herbal APIs (Extracts):GACP Regulations / GMP Implemen-tation / Process Development” tookplace on September 3 at the GA-Con-gress in Münster.

•PC “Regulatory Affairs” (A. Vlietinck /S. Alban): the Workshop “Harmonisa-tion of Health Claims in Europe” tookplace on September 1 at the GA-Con-gress in Münster.

•PC “Young Researchers Workshop”(J. Rollinger / D. Tasdemir / A.R. Bilia /A. Hensel / J.-L. Wolfender): the work-shop took place on September 1 atthe GA-Congress in Münster with 3Impulse Lectures (S. Grienke / M.Cuendet / G. Abel) and 6 Short Lec-tures by young researchers.

6. Election of the Board of DirectorsProf. E. Stahl-Biskup acted as supervi-sor of elections. She informed the as-sembly that the elections and the nom-inations have been announced in theGA-Newsletter 1-2013. 156 votes cast(including 4 company authorisations)were collected. She presented the finalresults of the elections to the ExC afterthe Members Meeting.

6.1 Election of the PresidentM. Hamburger: 142 affirmativevotes

6.2 Election of the two Vice-PresidentsA.R. Bilia: 143 affirmative votes W. Blaschek: 128 affirmative votes

6.3 Election of the TreasurerB. Roether: 149 affirmative votes

6.4 Election of the SecretaryB. Benedek: 148 affirmative votes

6.5 Election of the Advisory BoardRegular Positions:Rudolf Bauer: 77 affirmative votesAndreas Hensel: 74 affirmative votesDeniz Tasdemir: 65 affirmative votesSandra Apers: 63 affirmative votesVeronika Butterweck: 57 affirma-tive votesMichael Heinrich: 57 affirmativevotesJunior Positions:Christian Agyare: 69 affirmative votesNikolas Fokialakis: 44 affirmativevotes

7. Membership discount for memberspaying fees 5 years in advanceMembers who pay membership fees 5years in advance shall get a discount of10% (because of lower administrationcosts): approval by the assembly.

8. Future Congresses, Symposia andWorkshops8.1 Annual GA Congresses

• 2014: Univ. Minho, Guimaraes,Portugal, Aug. 31 – Sept. 5 (or-ganiser: Prof. A. Diaz). JointMeeting with AFERP (Prof. E.Seguin), First Announcement isavailable.

• 2015: Budapest, Hungary (organ-iser: J. Hohmann)

• 2016: Copenhagen, Denmark (JointMeeting, organiser: A. Jäger)

• 2017: Basel, Switzerland (organ-iser: M. Hamburger)

• 2018: Beijing/Shanghai, China(organiser: D. Guo)

• budget / program / contracts(par tially) existing

8.2 Future Congresses and Workshops• Joint Symposium with the BHMA:

Can Medicine be your Food? Thechallenging borderline betweenherbal medicines and botanicals.October 28, 2013, Jodrell Labora-tory, Royal Botanic Gardens,Kew, London

• EACEA , Inst. Pharm. Sci. Univ.Graz: Renaissance for Garlic andother Medicinal Herbs as an op-portunity for European Minorities.November 28-29, Graz, Austria

• 12th Annual Oxford InternationalConference on the Science ofBotanicals. April 15–18. 2014,Oxford, Mississippi, USA

• Internationale Tagung „Phyto -therapie 2014: Klinik und Praxis“.June 18–21, 2014, Winterthur,Switzerland

• Phytopharm 2014. July 3 5 (July7–9), 2014, St. Petersburg, Rus-sia

9. Miscellaneous•M. O’Neil-Johnson suggests to pro-

mote chemistry more than is donenow.

• I. Khan invites to the 2014 Meeting ofthe American Society of Pharmacog-nosy.

•M. Heinrich thanks Prof. B. Kopp forher work for GA as vice-president andpresident.

• It is noted that about 25% of the an-nounced posters are not presented,but the abstracts are published inPlanta Medica. It is proposed to stoppublishing the abstracts before theAnnual Congress, but to invite theposter authors after the Congress tosubmit an extended abstract. Prof.Hamburger replies that the board isaware of this situation and that a solu-tion has to be found. Prof. Blaschekstates that in the future abstracts willonly be published if the author has in-deed presented the poster or shortlecture.

•A member from Nigeria informs thatcolleagues from Nigeria have beendenied visa from the Nigerian Em-bassy. He asks if in the future a letterfrom the Congress organiser or fromGA could be sent directly to the Em-bassy. Prof. Hensel as organiser of the2013 Congress replied that an invita-tion letter has been sent to everybodywho has requested one.

•R. Bauer remarks that the main objec-tive of the Foundation “Plants forHealth” is to support high quality(„good“) science in the field of medic-inal plant and natural product re-search.

Vienna, 25. Oct. 2013

Dr. Christoph Wawrosch

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Meeting Reports

The 61st International Congress and An-nual Meeting of the Society for MedicinalPlant and Natural Product Research (GA)was held in Münster, Germany, from 1st–5th

September 2013. The local organizers,represented by the conference chairs Prof.Andreas Hensel and Prof. Thomas J.Schmidt (Institute of Pharmaceutical Biol-ogy and Phytochemistry of the Universityof Münster) could receive 755 registrationsfrom scientists from academia and indus-try dealing with all aspects of medicinalplant and natural product research as wellas phytotherapy. This high number of par-ticipants from 58 countries from all overthe world was certainly due to the very at-tractive scientific program which mirroredthe huge diversity of medicinal plant andnatural product research. All oral presenta-tions were presented in the University’sauditorium maximum and further lecturehalls located in a central building near thecastle of Münster. Poster presentations, aswell as an exhibition of industrial compa-nies, took place in a large tent right in frontof the castle’s main entrance.

The main program of the conference be-gan already in the evening of Sunday,Sept. 1st, with an enlightening opening lec-ture by Prof. Alan H. Fairlamb (Dundee,U.K.) on “Natural products and drug dis-covery for tropical diseases”. The confer-ence was officially opened on Mondaymorning, Sept. 2nd, by GA president Prof.Wolfgang Blaschek (University of Kiel,Germany). During the opening ceremony,eight travel grant awards to congress par-ticipants from various countries as well astwo important scientific awards were pre-sented by GA. The Egon-Stahl-Award insilver went to Prof. Dr. Sandra Apers

(Antwerp, Belgium) for her research in theareas of isolation, structure elucidationand biological activity of natural productsas well as the development of innovativemethods for the analysis and quality con-trol of herbal medicinal preparations. TheBionorica Phytoneering Award 2013 wasgiven to Prof. Dr. Robert Fürst (Frankfurt,Germany) for his outstanding investiga-tions of the molecular mechanisms of plantmetabolites and extracts to influence in-flammatory processes, angiogenesis andendothelial interactions. Both awardeesthen presented their results in outstandinglectures. After the opening ceremony, aspecial „birthday ceremony“ acknowl-edged the 60th anniversary of the journalPlanta Medica, GA’s official scientific pub-lishing organ. It was organized by Prof. LucPieters (Editor-in-Chief), Prof. MatthiasHamburger (Review Editor) and Dr. ReginaWenzel (Thieme Publishers). The opportu-nity was taken to give an overview onPlanta Medica’s history as well as to ac-knowledge the most innovative PlantaMedica publication of the year 2012 by anaward presented by Thieme Publishersand GA for the first time. Awardee Prof.Susan Murch (University of British Colum-bia, Canada) summarized her publication(see Planta Medica 2012; 78: 630–640) in ashort presentation (see Planta Medica2012; 78: 630–640).The last year’s winner of the Dr. WillmarSchwabe Research Scholarship for YoungScientists at the New York Joint-Meetingwas Ms. Moradi-Afrapoli, Iran. After havingworked for half a year at the Institute ofPharmaceutical Biology at the University ofBasel, Switzerland, this year in Münstershe presented the results of her investiga-tions in a lecture on in vitro transport stud-

ies with kaempferol and its anxiolyticmetabolite 4-HPAA inhuman cell models.

The scientific program, made up of 12main topic sections, comprised nine ple-nary lectures held by distinguished leadingscientists, 79 excellent short lecture contri-butions and 25 oral presentations during 4workshops, as well as about 600 posterpresentations. The ethnomedicine of theAmazonian region as well as that of thetropical and subtropical regions in Africarepresented some main topics. They werepresented in plenary lectures by Prof.Elaine Elisabetsky (Porto Alegre, Brazil), byProf. Johannes van Staden (Scottsville,South Africa) and by Prof. Sami A. Khalid(Omdurman, Sudan). Another topic wascomputational methods in natural prod-ucts chemistry, hyphenated analyticaltechniques and target fishing. Prof. RonaldJ. Quinn (Brisbane, Australia), a pioneer inthe application of modeling methods innatural product based drug research, gavean overview on his experiences with com-putational approaches covering the as-sessment of drug-like and lead-like prop-erties of natural products. Dr. JandirkSendker (Münster, Germany) gave a high-light lecture on the application of multivari-ate statistical tools to large sets of analyti-cal data with the goal of identifying newbio logically active compounds in senes-cent plant material. Concerning skin-activenatural products, Prof. Tony Rawlings(Northwich, U.K.) in his plenary lecturegave an overview on such preparationsand focused on their influences on bio-chemical processes in the skin related toanti-aging mechanisms. A hot topic indays of malnutrition is that of dietary fibersand their health-promoting and protective

61st International Congress and Annual Meeting of GA,Sept. 01– 05, 2013, University of Münster, Germany www.g

a2013.org

Münster castle and the GA-poster tent.

11

activity. The plenary lecture by Prof. TonyBacic (Melbourne, Australia) focused onsuch soluble dietary fiber consisting of var-ious glucans and arabinoxylans. He em-phasized their health promoting and pro-tective effects, especially against coloncancer, development of type II-diabetesand cardiovascular disorders:, and alsohighlighted attempts to enhance the con-tent of these valuable constituents inwheat, barley and rice. Herbal medicinalproducts require proper pharmacologicalcharacterization including a clear proof ofsafety and efficacy. Prof. Veronika Butter-weck (Muttenz, Switzerland) demonstratedin her interesting plenary lecture that activ-

ity claims for herbal products must not bemade solely on the basis of in vitro databut require clear evidence for an in vitro-invivo correlation, which quite often is miss-ing. She discussed requirements forproper pharmacological studies of plantextracts and also showed that such inves-tigations, if properly conducted, can be avery challenging task. In addition to themain topics highlighted here, a huge num-ber of oral and poster presentations ofhigh quality were given in other conferencesessions on “Natural product chemistry”,“Plant phenolics”, “Quality control meth-ods for medicinal plants”, “Herbal prod-ucts in animal healthcare”, “Metabolic

pathway engineering” and other fields ofresearch. Abstracts of all contributionswere published in a special issue of PlantaMedica (Vol. 79 (13), 1097–1288, 2013;https://www.thieme-connect.de/ejournals/issue/10.1055/s-003-25532).Furthermore a number of workshops re-lated to important aspects of medicinalplant and natural product research wereattended by many interested visitors. OnSunday afternoon GA’s Young Re-searchers Workshop attracted a large au-dience of younger colleagues who were in-spired by three excellent impulse lecturesheld by Ulrike Grienke (Innsbruck, Austria),Muriel Cundet (Lausanne, Switzerland) andGudrun Abel (Neumarkt, Germany) fol-lowed by six short lectures of young col-leagues. Workshops of GA’s permanentcommittees on Regulatory Affairs and onManufacturing of Herbal Medicinal Prepa-rations gave important insights into thecurrent situation of phytopharmaceuticals.For the first time, GA also hosted a work-shop related to an EU / COST program onmetabolic pathway engineering of second-ary natural products. Quite successful wasalso a workshop entitled “Industry meetsacademia” where perspectives for interac-tions, networking and cooperations be-tween university researchers and pharma-ceutical manufacturers were highlightedand discussed, as well as a workshop on aresearch network Natural Products againstNeglected Diseases.

The successful congress was summarizedby W. Blaschek and A. Hensel during theclosing ceremony on the late afternoon ofWednesday, Sept. 4th. During this cere-mony, also six GA awards were presentedto participants of the “Young researcher

The congress GA 2013 organisation team.

Main Lecture Hall for exciting talks and discussions.

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workshop” along with six awards for out-standing posters. The annual congress ofnext year could be announced to takeplace from August 31 to September 04,2014, in the north of Portugal, at the Uni-versity Minho in Guimaráes, where it willbe organized by Alberto Dias.Many thanks to the whole team in Münsterfor organizing an informative scientificcongress and to all participants for theirexcellent scientific contributions whichmade this congress an event many of uswill remember as a highlight for a longtime.

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Blaschek(GA President)

Pictures and impressions from the confer-ence and the participants and further infor-mation on the conference can be down-loaded from http://www.ga2013.org/ Chairmen of GA 2013: Prof. Dr. Thomas Schmidt and Prof. Dr. Andreas Hensel.

COST-Workshop and Presymposium to GA 2013 Conference in Münster, Germany: Challenges And Limita-tions in Metabolic Pathway Engineering of Secondary Natural Products

To highlight modern aspects of biotech-nology and biochemistry bearing uponmedicinal plant research, a featured pre-symposium to the 61st International Con-gress and Annual Meeting of the Societyfor Medicinal Plant and Natural ProductResearch (GA) was held, introducing theobjectives and endeavors of the COST Ac-tion FA1006, PlantEngine: Plant MetabolicEngineering for High Value Products. Thekey-note speakers: Rob Schuurink, Uni-versity of Amsterdam, Michal Jasinski,Polish Academy of Science, and Kirsi-Marja Oksman-Caldentey, VTT Helsinkiexpounded upon the latest research devel-

opments concerning the aspects of ter-penoid biosynthesis regulation in tri-chomes, intracellular transport processesand precursor trafficking, as well as thecomplex mechanisms fostering thebiosynthesis of pharmaceutically relevantalkaloids. The featured scientific talksspurred intensive discussions with the au-dience members, clearly indicating a con-siderable interest in the multidisciplinaryaspects of research fields represented bythe PlantEngine Action. The final round-table discussion led into a vibrant debateon further implementation of plant biotech-nology in future Society activities. Many

arguments were controversially discussedamong the speakers and Congress partic-ipants, resulting in the definition of specificpivotal issues: the need for increased in-dustry involvement, focus not only onplants but also on sustainable supply ofnatural products, and ethical aspects ofgenetically modified plants.The symposium organizers, Prof. OliverKayser and Prof. Heribert Warzecha ex-press their gratitude to the GA for the op-portunity to introduce and highlightPlantEngine activities.

Prof. Dr. O. Kayser and coworkers

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GA-Workshop during GA 2013 Conference in Münster,Germany: Traditional herbal medicinal products and foodsupplements – The issue of health claims for botanicalsremains unsolved

During the Annual Congress of GA inMünster/Germany in the beginning of Sep-tember 2013 a specific workshop of thepermanent Committee “Regulatory Affairs”took place which was chaired by ProfessorSusanne Alban, Kiel, and Professor ArnoldVlietinck, Antwerp. In presentations givenby Dr. Patrick Coppens, Brussels, Profes-sor Vittorio Silano, Rome, and ProfessorRobert Anton, Strasbourg, the regulatoryframework was described including theunsolved problem of the assessment ofhealth claims of food supplements ofherbal origin, the so-called botanicals, andproposals for a future procedure weremade.

At least since publication of a discussionpaper of the European Commission insummer 2012 an intensive debate hadarisen on how to handle the assessment ofhealth claims for botanicals in future. Whilethe first option consists of maintaining theexisting assessment criteria – with theconsequence of almost no positive deci-sions of the European Food Safety Author-ity (EFSA) – a second option proposes achange of the legal framework including apotential new approach. Such a solutionwould be similar to the situation of tradi-tional herbal medicinal products whichmay demonstrate their long-term use andexperience in case sufficient clinical evi-

dence is missing. At present EFSA has puton hold further assessment of botanicalhealth claims since almost no positive de-cision on the food industry’s applicationsfor claims could be achieved.

In the following, the Herbal MedicinalProducts Committee’s (HMPC’s) vice-chairperson Professor Ioanna Chinou,London and Athens, reported on the as-sessment criteria established by Directive2004/24/EC particularly for traditionalherbal medicinal products and presentedexamples of the successful work of theHMPC on far more than 100 CommunityHerbal Monographs.

In an intensive and partly controversial dis-cussion which focused on the borderlinebetween traditional herbal medicinal prod-ucts and food supplements of botanicalorigin, the pharmacological effects of me-dicinal products compared to the physio-logical effects of food supplements werepointed out as the main criterion for differ-entiation. In addition, quality issues forfood supplements were addressed whichwere considered to increase in future andfor which assessment criteria according tothe European Pharmacopoeia were pro-posed. Furthermore, safety plays an im-portant role as can be shown by numerouscriteria laid down in various EFSA docu-

ments. It was stated that mechanisms ofcontrol do exist for food supplements aswell, however, they are not applicable priorto their market access and not in the sameextent as compared to medicinal products.

An interesting discussion arose on aFrench proposal to accept the same tradi-tional uses of herbal medicinal products(e.g. those granted by the HMPC andlisted in their monographs) also for foodsupplements. However, in this workshopsome strong arguments were presentedagainst this suggestion (corresponding tothe so-called BELFRIT initiative from Bel-gium, France and Italy), mainly because fortraditionally used medicinal plants a tradi-tion as food does not exist. Furthermorethe evidence of use would normally bebased on administration in ill patientsand/or pharmacological and clinical datatypically required for medicinal products. Itwas argued that for these reasons a trans-fer of “traditional” indications to healthclaims for botanicals seems not to be real-istic. As a result of the discussion it wasconcluded that due to the complex situa-tion further discussions are required, and ashort-term solution cannot be expected.

Dr. Barbara SteinhoffEmail: steinhoff@phytotherapie.de

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Workshop during GA 2013 Conference in Münster, Germany: Animal healthcare and veterinary medicineleads to a GA-Networking group

Per worldwide human being about 15“livestock beeings” (more than two thirdsof them are poultry individuals but also 0.3small ruminants, 0.2 cattle and 0.15 pigs;FAO, 2013) and, for sure, a lot of compan-ion animals are living on our planet. Keep-ing livestock healthy and productive will beone of THE challenges of the nextdecades. Since a couple of years, a group of veteri-narians from the Netherlands, Germanyand Switzerland (Anette van der Aa, CäciliaBrendieck-Worm,  Maria Groot, SabineVollstedt  and Michael Walkenhorst) in-tended to come together with researchersfrom all over the world which are involvedin research regarding medicinal plants andnatural products in animal healthcare andveterinary medicine to start continuousnetworking regarding this subject. And itwas great be able to get Professor Chlod-wig Franz from Austria and Prof. JohannaFink-Gremmels on board, too. High qualityresearch and scientific publications re-garding “herbal animal health” are urgentlyneeded. And lucky for us- the GA as alongstanding scientific organization waswilling to add “medicinal plant productsand animal health care” as one of her aims.Thanks the great enthusiasm of ProfessorAndreas Hensel “Animal Healthcare andVeterinary Medicine” was a main topicwithin the 61th International Congress andAnnual Meeting of the GA in Münster. Wewere overjoyed to have 6 oral presenta-tions and 25 posters from 12 countries of4 continents. The workshop itself took place at MünsterUniversity in the evening of September 2th.Around 60 interested scientists partici-pated. Professor Johanna Fink Gremmels,Head of the Pharmacology and Toxicologyat the Veterinary Faculty in Utrecht,Netherlands and President of the Euro-pean Association for Veterinary Pharma-cology and Toxicology started with a long-sighted and interdisciplinary speech about“One world – one health”. Her speech“Herbal medicinal products in animalhealthcare and veterinary medicine – anoption to reduce risks in human health?”highlighted current problems in veterinarymedicine based with the regards to theuse of antimicrobials and the rising num-bers of drug resistant bacterial strains. Me-dicinal plants and natural products withtheir wide spectrum of metabolites areshowing a high potential to solve thesechallenges. But to tap the full potentialsome regulatory basic requirements haveto be managed.

Professor Chlodwig Franz from the Insti-tute of Animal Nutrition and FunctionalPlant Compounds of the university of vet-erinary medicine in Vienna who already or-ganized a couple of meetings regardinganimal healthcare issues before – the lastone was the HERBAN Congress whichwas associated with the GA-Congress inAntalya 2011 – summarized research re-sults in his lecture: “Herbal medicinalproducts in animal healthcare and veteri-nary medicine – research highlights of thelast decades”. He also pointed out thateconomic factors often influence the prac-tical application that could be gained forresearch in to plant derived product. After these two impulse lectures MariaGroot, Sam de Snoek, Kobus Eloff,Olatunde Ajagbonna and Michael Walken-horst gave a quick overview about recentresearch activities in the Netherlands,United States of Amerika, Sourth Africa,Nigeria and Switzerland. An active andcreative discussion was started and con-tinued – for another 3 hours – in the localgastronomy.From this kick-off meeting a new Net-working group has been started in Octo-ber 2013. The group currently has 44members from 15 countries and is open toall interested scientists. The network aimsto spread and exchange scientific informa-tion regarding medicinal plants and natural

products in animal healthcare and veteri-nary medicine. A short summary of theaims:1. To keep people up to date about scien-

tific events2. To give people the chance to spread

their own research3. To send around interesting articles and

requests regarding scientific literature4. To offer people the option to get in per-

sonal contact among each other

This includes i.e. veterinary phytopharma-cology and ethnoveterinary medicine, aswell as clinical applications of naturalproducts, herbal drug materials and plantderived feeding additives in animals. Thenetwork want to encourage our membersto distribute scientific information and tostimulate intra- and interdisciplinary scien-tific exchange.About every 6 months members will be in-formed about upcoming meetings andcongresses and new scientific publica-tions.  Please send all interesting informa-tion to an.vanderaaga@gmail.com.

Dr. WalkenhorstAnnete van der Aa

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Announcement of the 62nd International Congress and Annual Meeting of the Society for Medicinal Plant andNatural Product Research (GA)

Invitation to the Congress andAnnual Meeting of GA

The Society for Medicinal Plant and Natu-ral Product Research (GA) invites all scien-tists from academia and industry dealingwith natural products, medicinal plantsand phytotherapy, to this congress. GA2014 is a forum for the presentation anddiscussion of the latest research in thefields of phytochemistry, analytics, phar-macology and clinical applications. Theconference will provide a platform for net-working between academia and industry. GA 2014 has been endorsed by the Asso-ciation Francophone pour l’Enseignementet la Recherche en Pharmacognosie(AFERP).The Congress will be held at the Universityof Minho, Azurém Campus (http://www.uminho.pt/en), which is located in closevicinity to the medieval city centre ofGuimarães, a UNESCO World HeritageSite. The historical city of Guimarães (seealso http://www.guimaraesturismo.com/)is located in Northern Portugal. The dy-namic and colorful Minho Region is fa-mous for its landscape and vineyardswhere the unique “Vinho Verde” wine isproduced. The University of Minho is aleading university in Portugal and offers anexcellent setting for the Congress.Plenary lectures by leading scientists, andseveral workshops will provide insightsinto topical aspects of medicinal plant andnatural product research. Apart from the scientific program, a stimu-lant and diverse social program will beproposed. This will include excursions tothe National Park Peneda-Gerês and Es-posende, with its wild beautiful coastallandscapes and unique biodiversity, and tothe Douro Valley with its famous terracedvineyards. Guided visits to the cities ofPorto and Guimarães, both classified asWorld Heritage Sites by UNESCO, are alsoplanned.

Main Scientific Topics:– Clinical phytomedicine– Nanotechnology and drug delivery– Natural compounds as leads– Natural products from fungi and algae– Nutritional phytochemicals– Medicinal plants and bioeconomy– Metabolomics– Plant molecular farming

Scientific contributions to other topics re-lated to medicinal plant and natural prod-uct research are welcome.

Plenary Speakers (confirmed)Jean-Luc Wolfender (Geneva, CH)Metabolomics as established tool in natu-ral product research: Opportunities in phy-

tochemistry / perspectives in pharmacog-nosy.

Gabriele M. Konig (Bonn, DE)The secondary metabolome of marine- derived microorganisms

Merlin Willcox (Oxford, UK)Clinical trials of herbal medicines: lessonslearned and future priorities

Massimo Fresta, (Catanzaro, IT)Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology meetsnatural products

Stefan Schillberg (Aachen, DE)Molecular Farming  –  production of phar-maceuticals in plants and plant cells

Nunziatina de Tomasi (Salerno, IT)Plant-Inspired Drug Discovery: new strate-gies for new leads

Tomas Barberan (Murcia, ES)Interaction of polyphenols with gut micro-biota: Role in human health

João Laranjinha (Coimbra, PT)An alternative pathway to the health bene-fits of dietary polyphenols: the nitrate- nitrite-nitric oxide pathway in the gut

Cesar Fraga (Buenos Aires, AR)Flavanols and vascular function: antihyper-tensive, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidantactions in experimental animals

AFERP Speakers and topics (confirmed)Young Choi (Leiden, NL)Metabolomics and NADES

Olivier Thomas (Nice, FR)Marine natural products

Pierre Champy (Paris, FR)Toxicity of Annonaceae

Sophie Tomasi, (Rennes, FR)Bioactive compounds from lichens

Workshops– 8th Young Researchers Workshop– Workshop: Regulatory Affairs on Herbal

Medicinal Products– Workshop: Breeding and cultivation of

Medicinal Plants– Workshop: Biological and Pharmacolog-

ical Activity of Natural Products

Call for PapersWe invite submission of abstracts for shortlectures and posters.Scientific contributions are subject to a re-view process. The abstracts of all contributions pre-sented at the conference will later be pub-lished in a Special Issue of Planta Medica.Abstract submission will be open startingFebruary 1, 2014, via http://ga2014.bio.uminho.pt/Submission of abstracts requires prior reg-istration of at least one author. Registra-tion also will start on February 1, 2014.

Travelling to Guimarães and Accommodation

Guimarães is easily accessible by highwayor railway. It is located 50 km from Porto,and linked to main Portuguese cities bytrain or express buses.The nearest airport is Oporto InternationalAirport. There are several regular and lowcost airlines flying to Oporto.Guimarães can also be reached via Vigo(Spain) airport or Lisboa airport.

GA 2014, August 31 – September 4Guimarães, Portugal

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Accommodation is provided by several hotels in Guimarães. Alternatively, partici-pants may consider accommodations inthe city of Braga (located 17 km fromGuimarães). Public bus and train serviceslink the two cities. Cheap accommodation in student resi-dences (in total of 400 beds) is available onthe Azurém Campus, Guimarães, in closevicinity to the conference venue.

Official LanguageThe official language of the congress willbe English. There will be no access to simultaneous translation into other lan-guages.

Local Organizing CommitteeAlberto Dias (Chair)Ana Cunha, Andreia Gomes, CristinaPereira-Wilson, Cristóvão Lima, FranklinGregory, Hernâni Gerós, Isabel Mina,Maria João Sousa, Olga Coutinho, RuiOliveira

Congress SecretariatAll correspondence concerning the congress should be addressed to:Prof. Dr. Alberto DiasUniversity of Minho, Campus de Gualtar,Braga4710-057 PortugalPhone/Fax: +351 253604317; +351253678980Email: ga2014@bio.uminho.ptWebpage: http://ga2014.bio.uminho.pt/

Retirement of Prof. Dr. Karen Nieber

On 21. November 2013 an academic cele-bration was organized at the University ofLeipzig, Germany, for the occasion of theretirement of Professor Dr. Karen Nieber.Karen Nieber, long standing member ofGA, has been a member of the Faculty ofLife Sciences, Pharmacy and Psychologysince 1995 and was responsible for re-search and teaching of pharmacology. Shewill be remembered by all colleagues,graduate and undergraduate students as agenial scientist, and a helpful mentor tostudents, both those who aspired to excel-

lence and those whose aspiration wasmainly to graduate. Her numerous papersin a variety of journals will bear witness toher imaginativeness and acumen. Specialemphasis in her research was on the phar-macology of complex plant extracts andnatural products. All colleagues whishKaren Nieber many long years in the besthealth and enormous power for new proj-ects.

Andreas Hensel

New Books

Rainer Scheer, Susanne Alban, HansBecker, Wolfgang Blaschek, Fritz H. Kem-per, Wolfgang Kreis, Harald Matthes,Heinz Schilcher, Rainer Stange (Eds.):Die Mistel in der Tumortherapie 3 – Ak-tueller Stand der Forschung und klinischeAnwendung, 502 pages, color illustration,ISBN 978-3-86864-032-8, Essen 2013,39,– €

The international and interdisciplinary con-ferences on “Mistletoe in Tumor Therapy”have been held every four years since1995. At the fifth conference in November

2011, participants presented results fromvarious areas of research (biology, phar-macology, preclinical and clinical research)as well as experience-based therapeuticknowledge. New to this meeting was thefocus on a particular tumor entity, the pan-creatic carcinoma.The conferences are a forum for scientistsand physicians with a variety of speciali-zations and therapeutic approaches, formanufacturers of mistletoe products andrepresentatives of public institutions in-volved in registration and licencing proce-dures. Each conference has produced its

own topics and results. The various publi-cations resulting from the conferences canthus be seen as references and tools foreveryday medical practice.Oncology needs interdisciplinary ap-proaches yielding results which meet pa-tients’ high expectations for help and ad-vice.The book’s main language is German,but all abstracts and some contributionsare in English.

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EU supports research on the discovery of innovative cosmetics from Mediterranean and alpine plant biodiversity

The discovery and development of innova-tive products in the area of cosmeceuticalsoriginating from European natural re-sources is the main aim of an EU fundedproject with the acronym NATPROTEC(FP7-PEOPLE-IAPP-2010 Marie Curie Ac-tions). The project being now in the secondyear of its implementation has a durationof four years and a total budget of 2.2 M €.Under the coordination of Prof. LeandrosSkaltsounis, who is Professor of Pharma-cognosy and Natural Products Chemistryin the Faculty of Pharmacy (University ofAthens, Greece), the consortium brings to-gether experts who are individually consid-ered as world leaders in their respectiveareas:

Four academic entities: University ofAthens (Greece), University of Geneva(Switzerland), University of Innsbruck(Austria) and University of Reims Cham-pagne-Ardenne (France), with docu-mented high quality research activity in thefield of natural products, bioprospection,phytochemistry and biology.

Four industrial partners: Rousselet Cen-trifugation SA – Kromaton (France), inter-nationally leader in Centrifugal PartitionChromatography technologies, KORRESSA (Greece), recognized for its expertise innatural cosmetics, Bionorica ReserachGmbH (Austria), specialized in exploitationof plant derived natural products and CAMAG (Switzerland), renowned world-wide for its expertise in High PerformanceThin Layer Chromatography.

The scientific concept of NATPROTEC in-volves the discovery of bioactive naturalproducts (NPs) originating from theMediterranean and Alpine biodiversity byusing emerging and environmentallyfriendly technologies. A structurally diversevirtual database of natural compoundswas initially created comprising about1200 compounds from already existingchemical libraries of the consortium. Therational and targeted selection of the mostpromising natural sources/plants has beenachieved by exploiting modern highthroughput platforms, under the approachof reverse pharmacognosy. Computer-guided approaches have been performedagainst tyrosinase and histone deacety-lase (HDAC) for a fast identification ofbioactive compounds to be tested in invitro assays. In parallel, the classical Phar-macognosy approach, based on traditionalknowledge and literature, was followed.According to the results so far, a total of~300 plant species were collected and ex-tracted producing ~600 extracts. A broadspectrum of bioassays was elaborated forthe in vitro evaluation of multiple skin pro-tective effects (DPPH, ABTS, ORAC, ALP,QR induction, HDAC activity). The evalua-tion of their anti-ageing properties (inhibi-tion of elastase, hyaluronidase and colla-genase activity) and their anti-hyperpig-mentation activity (inhibition of tyrosinaseactivity) is in progress. The most promisingextracts (~20) will be micro-fractionatedand resubmitted to biological evaluation.Advanced analytical approaches and tech-niques (HRMSn, cap-, micro-, LC-SPE-NMR, LC-HR-MSn, CPE/CPC-NMR) will beused for the bioactivity-oriented isolation

and structure elucidation of the active con-stituents and/or extracts. The physico-chemical and passive permeation proper-ties of the pure compounds will be evalu-ated while quantitative metabolomic analy-ses for characterizing the physiological re-sponse to pure compounds will be per-formed aiming to the quality assessmentof the lead products. Attention will begiven to the selection of the most suitablesource of biomaterial in terms of biologicalactivity and the metabolite profile. Finallyemerging “green” technologies (SFE-CO2,SWE, ART, CPE using bio-based solvents)will be a applied for a pilot scale produc-tion of the final lead products. The main goal and the respective objec-tives of the NATPROTEC project is beingimplemented in the context of an extensiveand balanced scheme of exchanges andrecruitments of researchers, between in-dustrial and academic partners. Within thisframe, core scientific knowledge and cos-meceutical agents are expected to be pro-duced creating valuable synergies. Thetransfer of knowledge will significantly in-crease the research quality, as well as theoverall RTD capability and competitive-ness of all participants. NATPROTEC as-pires to comprise a successful model of anefficient, long-lasting collaboration be-tween Industry and Academia for sustain-able exploitation of existing know-how andproduced knowledge.

For further information and communicationwith the consortium please visit the web-site www.natprotec.eu

Prof. Dr. Nikolas Fokialakis, Athens

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HORIZON 2020: NEW TOOL OF EU TO BOOST EUROPEAN RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

Horizon 2020, the EU’s next programmefor research and innovation, will run from2014 to 2020 with a budget of nearly EUR80 billion (current prices – adjusted for in-flation). It replaces the Seventh FrameworkProgramme for Research (FP7), which ranfrom 2007 to 2013 with a budget of aroundEUR 55 billion. Horizon 2020 is thebiggest EU research programme yet, andone of the biggest publicly funded world-wide. It is also one of only very few pro-grammes in the next EU budget to see astrong increase in funding – a nearly 30%jump in real terms over the current SeventhFramework Programme.

The proposed support for research and innovation under Horizon 2020 will:• Strengthen the EU’s position in science

with a dedicated budget of € 24341 mil-lion1. This will provide a boost to top-level research in Europe, including thevery successful European ResearchCouncil (ERC).

• Strengthen industrial leadership in inno-vation € 17015 million1. This includesmajor investment in key technologies,greater access to capital and support forSMEs.

• Provide € 30956 million1 to help addressmajor concerns shared by all Europeanssuch as climate change, developing sus-tainable transport and mobility, makingrenewable energy more affordable, en-suring food safety and security, or cop-ing with the challenge of an ageing pop-ulation

Other key elements of Horizon 2020 are: • Increased funding for the European

Research Council, already one of theworld’s premier frontier-research fundingagencies.

• Innovative public-private partnerships inareas such as new medicines, greeneraircraft technologies and electronics.

• Investment in Key Enabling Technologies(KETs) such as photonics, nanotechnolo-gies and biotechnology.

• A challenge-based approach to key is-sues facing societies, such as health-care, sustainable agriculture, smarterand greener transport, and climatechange.

• A renewed focus on widening participa-tion in less well-performing EU countries,including better synergies with EuropeanStructural and Investment Funds.

• A dedicated SME Instrument, and a“Fast Track to Innovation” pilot schemeto speed up the time from idea to mar-ket, and to increase the participation ofindustry, SMEs and first time applicantsin Horizon 2020.

• A programme for “Science for and withsociety”, in order to engage Europeansociety, increase the attractiveness ofscience careers and address gender im-balance in the field.

Horizon 2020 will tackle societal chal-lenges by helping to bridge the gap be-tween research and the market by, for ex-ample, helping innovative enterprise to de-velop their technological breakthroughsinto viable products with real commercialpotential. This market-driven approach willinclude creating partnerships with the pri-vate sector and Member States to bringtogether the resources needed.International cooperation will be an impor-tant cross-cutting priority of Horizon 2020.In addition to Horizon 2020 being fullyopen to international participation, tar-geted actions with key partner countriesand regions will focus on the EU’s strate-gic priorities. Through a new strategy, astrategic and coherent approach to inter-national cooperation will be ensuredacross Horizon 2020.

For more information please see:http://ec.europa.eu/research/horizon2020/index_en.cfm

Prof. Dr. Nikolas Fokialakis, Athens

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Recent thesis (2012) on Medicinal Plant Research (Notices of Ph.D- and M.Sc./diploma thesis to the editor are welcome any time!)

Ph.D. thesis (2013) Antiviral effects of plantextracts with antiadhesive propertiesagainst Influenz A-virus: Inhibition of viraladsorption by polyphenolic compoundsfrom Rumex acetosa L., Eupatorium perfo-liatum L. and Hedera helix L. By: AndreasDerksen; Promotor: Prof. Dr. AndreasHensel, Institut of Pharmaceutical Biologyand Phytochemistry, University of Mün-ster, Germany.

Ph.D. thesis (2013) Natural deep eutecticsolvents and theier application in naturalproducts research and development. By:Yuntao Dai. Promotores: Prof. Dr. R. Ver-poorte, IBL, Leiden University,  Leiden, NL,and Prof.  Dr. G.J. Witkamp, Delft Univer-sity of Technology, Delft, NL.

Ph.D. thesis (2013) Pyrrolizidine alkaloidvariation in Jacobaea plants: From plantorgan to cell level. By Tri Rini Nuringtyas.Promotores: Prof. Dr. R. Verpoorte and Prf.Dr. P.G.L. Klinkhamer, IBL, Leiden Univer-sity, Leiden, NL.

Ph.D. thesis (2013) Mechanistic studies onindirubin-3‘-monoxime regarding its anti-proliferative and anti-inflammatory effect invascular smooth muscle cells. By: TinaBlaževic; Promotor: Prof. Dr. Verena M.Dirsch, University of Vienna, Austria.

Diploma thesis (2013) “PhytochemischeUntersuchungen zur Cyanogenese von Aralia spinosa L.”. By Christian Wessel;Promotors: Prof. A. Hensel, University ofMünster and Prof. Karen Nieber, Universityof Leipzig, Germany.

Diploma thesis (2013) Influence of selectednatural products on protein tyrosine phos-phatase 1B and insulin signaling. By: So-phie Bartenstein; Promotor: Prof. Dr. Ver-ena M. Dirsch, University of Vienna, Aus-tria.

Diploma thesis (2013) Design and Synthe-sis of a Compound Library Exploiting 5-Methoxyleoligin as Angiogenic Lead Struc-ture. By: Sophie Geyrhofer; Promotor:Prof. Dr. Verena M. Dirsch, University of Vienna and Prof. Marko Mihovilovic, TU Vienna, Austria.

Diploma thesis (2013) Influence of AMPK-dependent pathways on the activation ofNrf2 by xanthohumol. By: Barbara Mayer-hofer; Promotor: Prof. Dr. Verena M.Dirsch, University of Vienna, Austria.

Diploma thesis (2013) Neolignanderivateals PPARgamma- und RXRalpha-Modula-toren. By: Amina Cocic; Promotor: Prof.Dr. Verena M. Dirsch, University of Vienna,Austria.

Diploma thesis (2013) Mechanism of ac-tion of natural compounds enhancingmacrophage cholesterol efflux. By: NicoleSchilcher; Promotor: Prof. Dr. Verena M.Dirsch, University of Vienna, Austria.

Diploma thesis (2013) Natural products tofight insulin resistance and hyperglycemia– establishment and application of relevantin vitro and cell-based screening models.By: Roberta Baron; Promotor: Prof. Dr.Verena M. Dirsch, University of Vienna,Austria.

Diploma thesis (2013) Versuche zurIsolierung von Oleocanthal aus Olivenöl.By: Dominic Dorfmeister; Promotor: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr. L. Krenn, Department ofPharmacognosy, University of Vienna,Austria.

Diploma thesis (2013) Analyse phenoli -scher Inhaltsstoffe von Drosera peltatamittels narrow bore HPLC. By: Sonja Fischer; Promotor: Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. L.Krenn, Department of Pharmacognosy,University of Vienna, Austria.

Diploma thesis (2013) Isolierung von In-haltsstoffen aus dem Harz von Doremaammoniacum D. Don. By: Johannes Lutz;Promotor: Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. L. Krenn, Department of Pharmacognosy, Universityof Vienna, Austria.

Diploma thesis (2013) Entwicklung undOptimierung einer Trennmethode für einMulti-Target-Screening. By: Kristina Mit-terhauser; Promotor: Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. L.Krenn, Department of Pharmacognosy,University of Vienna, Austria.

Diploma thesis (2013) Isolierung vonSekundärstoffen aus Eriosema laurentii.By: Katrin Ukowitz; Promotor: Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. L. Krenn, Department of Pharma-cognosy, University of Vienna, Austria.

Diploma thesis (2013) Untersuchungenzum Einfluss der Einzelkomponenten vonMyrrhinil-intest® auf die LPS-induzierteTNF-α-Freisetzung an THP-1 Zellen“. ByRebecca Jente; Promotor: Prof. KarenNieber, University of Leipzig, Germany.

Diploma thesis (2013) Untersuchungenvon Einzelextraktkombinationen von STW5 auf die Kontraktilität von Dünndarmprä-paraten der Ratte. By Natalia Mishenzon;Promotor: Prof. Karen Nieber, University ofLeipzig, Germany.

Diploma thesis (2013) Einfluss von Phy l -lostachys edulis-Extrakten sowie derenHauptmetabolid Isoorientin auf die Freiset-zung der Cytokine IL6, IL8 und VEGF inTNF-α-stimulierten HaCaT-Kreatinozyten.By Tony Daubitz; Promotors: Prof. Vero -nika Butterweck, Fachhochschule Nord-westschweiz and Prof. Karen Nieber, Uni-versity of Leipzig, Germany

Meeting Reports

Editorial remark

All contributions for the GA-News -letter are welcome. Deadline forsubmission for the next edition isfixed to May 20th 2014. Pleasesend all contributions to: Prof. Dr.A. Hensel, University of Münster,Institute for Pharmaceutical Biol-ogy and Phytochemistry, Correns -strasse 48, D-48149 Müns ter, Ger-many; ahensel@uni-muens ter.de