01.06.10
The University of Illinois at Chicago has received a two-year, $1.2-million federal grant to develop a new method for identifying the contents of botanical dietary supplements and how they work. The research, under the leadership of Guido Pauli, associate professor of pharmacognosy, will use nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry to identify the correct plant materials used for production more quickly and accurately, and to provide more reliable assays to ensure botanical quality and safety. The new methodology will initially test 10 of the top 20 most widely used botanicals. Among them are soy, red clover, garlic, ginkgo, Echinacea, St. John’s Wort, ginseng, green tea and black cohosh. The grant is funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, one of the National Institutes of Health.