Planta Med 2012; 78 - Editorial
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1320187

Editorial

E Kennelly 1, GT Carter 2
  • 1Chair, Local Organizing Committee
  • 2Chair, Scientific Organizing Committee

Dear Colleagues,

ICNPR 2012, the 8th joint meeting sponsored by the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP), and ]sister societies from Europe: the Italian Society of Pharmacognosy (SIF), the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Products Research (GA), the Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE) and the French Speaking Society of Pharmacognosy (AFERP), has been organized this year in New York. As Chairs of the Local and Scientific Organizing Committees, it is our pleasure to welcome you to New York. We are delighted by the response that was forthcoming for contributions to this Congress. We received nearly 1300 abstracts from scientists representing 64 countries from across the globe.

The master plan for our scientific program includes plenary sessions each morning of the Congress primarily dedicated to prestigious Award lectures and a celebration of the publication of the 75th Volume of the Journal of Natural Products. Except for Sunday these lectures are followed by parallel symposia dedicated to specialized areas of natural products research. The afternoons are devoted to contributed papers, with oral sessions launched by prominent scientists followed by extensive poster sessions arranged by topic areas. Sunday afternoon features a visit to the New York Botanical Garden for a chance to see the extensive collection in a relaxed and unhurried private showing.

The scientific program remains faithful to the traditional areas of interest to the sponsoring Societies, natural products discovery and analyses, while providing glimpses into specialized areas with strong natural products connections: Chemistry of Symbiosis, Genome Mining and Drug Discovery.

We would like to thank all of the members of the Local and Scientific Organizing Committees (listed below), for their enthusiastic contributions. We are particularly indebted to Dr. Mark O'Neil-Johnson for his efforts in gathering and editing these abstracts, which provide a foundation for the scientific discourse that will unfold during this Congress.

Edward Kennelly

Chair, Local Organizing Committee

Guy T. Carter

Chair, Scientific Organizing Committee