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HerbalEGram: Volume 6, Number 12, December 2009
21st Annual AAIC Meeting in Chile: “The Next Generation of Industrial Crops, Processes, and Products”
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The 21st annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Industrial Crops (AAIC) was held November 14-19 in Termas de Chillan, high on the slope of the Chillan Volcano in the snow-capped Andes mountains in Southern Chile.
Termas de Chillan is an excellent site for a conference; the luxury 5-star hotel has engineered the piping of hot water from the volcanic vents high atop the volcano to fill its indoor and outdoor pools. Attendees of the conference were thus able to enjoy resort accommodations while learning about a variety of interesting topics related to medicinal and other economic crops.
AAIC is an international professional organization of agronomists, horticulturalists, plant physiologists, natural product chemists, and other researchers who are dedicated to research and development of new crops with various commercial/industrial applications.
The conference was organized by Marisol Berti, PhD, a Chilean and associate professor of agronomy at North Dakota State University in Fargo and Steven C. Cermak, PhD, president of AAIC and a research scientist at the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service in Peoria, IL. Dr. Berti is also affiliated with the University of Concepcion’s Chilllan campus, where she initiated herbal research projects about 10 years ago.
The conference was divided into 5 basic tracks, each representing various commercial areas: (1) oilseed plants, i.e., plants with seeds that produce edible or other types of commercially useful oils, (2) bioenergy, i.e., plants that produce materials that are potentially useful for the emerging biofuels market, (3) plants with high potential for use for their fibers and cellullosics, (4) medicinal, nutraceutical and aromatic plants, and (5) plants containing rubber and resins.
This author’s plenary presentation dealt, of course, with medicinal plants, particularly recent trends in the market, regulation, media coverage, and conservation of herbs and medicinal plant products in North America and beyond.
In the medicinal plant arena, there were some interesting presentations and posters. Rodolfo Juliani, PhD, part of the prolific research team at Rutgers University, presented on his group’s efforts to foster organic essential oil production in Rwanda. Abed Burgos, MS, of the faculty of odontology at the Universidad del Desarrollo in Concepcion, presented on his group’s research on a mouthwash based on a chamomile (Matricaria recutita) extract used in children, aged 10 to 12, for its anti-inflammatory effects. Given the worldwide popularity of chamomile as a soothing, flavorful beverage and as a topical ingredient in cosmetics and dermatological preparations (particularly in Germany), the possibility for potential market success of a clinically-tested chamomile mouthwash may be promising.
Many other presentations and posters dealt with agronomic and chemical aspects of producing potential new crops for future commercial uses in the various industrial applications noted above. Presentations in the medicinal plant track, chaired by Dr. Juliani, included the production of flaxseed (Linum usisatisimum) as an edible food in Chile, the antifungal activity of the Chihuahuan and Sonoran desert plant chaparral (Larrea tridentata), a review of various edible berries grown in Canada and the chemistry and biological activities of their anthocyanins, and the characterization and propagation of some medicinal plants in the central-south region of Chile.
One field trip of the conference was a visit to a local winery (participants were highly interested in this local botanical product, apparently imbibing and purchasing numerous samples). Attendees were also able to visit the experimental agricultural plots at the University of Concepcion at Chillan where, in addition to some oilseed crops (canola [Brassica napus], camelina [Camelina sativa]) and fruit trees (cherries, etc.), the following medicinal plants are being grown: chamomile, flax, calendula (Calendula officinalis), matico (Buddleja globosa), mayu’ (Sophora macrocarpa), sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides), St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum), and yarrow (Achillea millefolium), among others.
The 22nd annual meeting of AAIC – “New Crops: Exploring Diversity, Preserving our Future”—will be held in Ft. Collins, CO, September 19-22, 2010. More information on AAIC, including how to access abstracts of the presentations and posters from this conference, can be found at its website: www.aaic.org.
—Mark Blumenthal |
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