The 5^th American Council for Medicinally Active Plants (ACMAP) Annual Conference is being organized by North Dakota State University faculty and staff and will be held in Fargo, June 15-18, 2014, at the Ramada Plaza and Suites. Dr. Kalidas Shetty spearheaded the plans to bring the conference to Fargo. Dr. Dipayan Sarkar is the 2014 ACMAP Program Chair. Shetty is the NDSU Vice President for International Partnership and Collaborations, and a professor of Plant Metabolism and Food Security in the Plant Sciences Department. Sarkar is the Head Research Scientist for Shetty.

ACMAP was established in 2009 “to promote and foster research, development, production, and conservation of medicinal, aromatic, and other bioactive plants useful to human health.” (http://www.acmap.org/) Members include scientists in the studies of agriculture, chemistry, food science and safety, health, nutrition, molecular biology, manufacturing and commerce, to name a few.

Past ACMAP conferences have been held in New Brunswick, NJ at The State University of New Jersey, Rutgers in July 2010; in Huntsville, AL in 2011; at the Arkansas Biosciences Institute at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, AK in 2012; and at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in 2013.

Topics that will be covered during the 2014 conference include

• Functional Foods and Non-Communicable Chronic Diseases
• Role of Phenolic Phytochemicals in Human Health
• Improving Yield of Plant Bioactives: From Agriculture Production to Post-Harvest Stages
• Role of Indigenous Diet in Prevention of Non-Communicable Chronic Diseases
• Plant Metabolic Engineering Strategies and Emerging Areas in Nutraceutical Research
• Production and Commercialization of Medicinal Plants and Herbs
• Development of Pharmaceutical Products from Plants and Herbs

In addition to keynote plenary sessions and research and poster presentations each day, an Open Forum titled Crops for Health as Solution to Chronic Disease: Strategic Vision for Agriculture and Global Food Security will be held on Monday afternoon. Tours of several local food production and agriculture businesses, and research facilities at North Dakota State University will also be offered to conference participants.

Early registration for the conference ends in March. Attendance is expected to include more than 100 scientists from many international regions, as well as the U.S.

Information on the ACMAP and the 2014 Conference can be seen at http://www.acmap.org/conference-registration

Source: Dipayan Sarkar, 701-231-5059, dipayan.sarkar@ndsu.edu
Author: Karen Hertsgaard, 701-231-5384, karen.hertsgaard@ndsu.edu