[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 15 (Wednesday, February 16, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E161]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO ETHNOBIOLOGICAL SCIENTISTS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN EDWARD PORTER

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 16, 2000

  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, on November 2, 1999, it was my great 
pleasure to participate in a reception on Capitol Hill to launch the 
``International Conference on Ethnomedicine and Drug Discovery,'' a 
significant scientific and cultural celebration of the role of 
traditional medicine in the discovery and development of new drugs and 
phytomedicines. I commend conference participants for their 
ethnomedical and ethnobotanical research efforts described during the 
conference, which provide solutions to problems of global public 
health, as well as the rapidly increasing loss of biological and 
cultural diversity.
  The rich history of drugs from nature was delivered by Dr. Gordon 
Cragg of the U.S. National Cancer Institute. A presentation by Dr. 
Brian Schuster from the Walter Reed Army Research Institute followed, 
describing many lead compounds to treat malaria, leishmaniasis and 
trypanosomiasis from plants found in West and Central Africa. The 
active compounds, from plants that healers in Nigeria and Cameroon use 
regularly, were discovered through the U.S. International Cooperative 
Biodiversity Group program for the treatment of parasitic diseases. A 
special colloquium, organized by Dr. Maurice Iwu, Director of the Pan-
African NGO Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme, was 
devoted to the West African medicinal plant Garcinia kola Heckel, also 
known as ``bitter cola,'' containing antiviral, antiinflammatory, 
antidiabetic, bronchiodilator and antihepatoxic properties, and found 
recently to have potential for treatment of the Ebola fever.
  The conference opening ceremony, ``The Festival of Living Culture,'' 
featured West African healers and musicians conducting traditional 
welcoming ceremonies with plants, music and dance, followed by a Native 
American healer who performed a traditional Cherokee ceremony. This 
dramatic opening demonstrated how the core elements of traditional 
medicine are inherently integrated with science, spirit, art, dance and 
ritual.
  The conference, held in Silver Spring, MD from November 3-5, 1999, 
included several hundred world wide participants. It was organized by 
national and international research, training and teaching 
organizations including the Bioresources Development and Conservation 
Programme (www.bioresources.org), the Alternative Medicine Foundation 
(www.amfoundation.org), American Herbal Products Association 
(www.AHPA.org), Axxon Biopharma, Inc. (www.axxonbiopharm.com), the 
Missouri Botanical Garden (www.mobot.org), the National Center for 
Natural Products Research at The University of Mississippi 
(www.olemiss.edu), Bastyr University (www.bastyr.edu) and the Healing 
Forest Conservancy (www.shaman.con/Healing__Forest.html).

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