DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The 2013 Natural Products Research Meetings is an annual conference of the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP) with participants both from the United States and foreign countries interested in natural products science and related fields. The 2013 meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency at the Arch, Saint Louis, Missouri with an additional educational event at the Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT) in St. Louis. The theme of the meeting is "Natural Products at a Crossroad: Present and Future Directions". The disciplines involved in the conference include state-of-the-art science and current techniques, quality practices and clinical studies in support of natural products chemistry, botanical medicines, botany, ethno- pharmacology and biochemistry. Biologically based practices such as herbal remedies and nutritional supplements are well represented at the meetings. Scientists and investigators attending the meeting are leading contributors in natural products and botanical's research This R13 grant application is appropriate for requesting funds in support of such conference. This award would support the registration, travel and accommodation of scientists who would present their ideas, research and experiences at this meeting, and funds would also support the planned educational excursion of these participants to MOBOT. Furthermore we hope to attract and support the participation of a considerable number of younger scientists. We are planning a Young Investigators event with plenary talks from key US women in science and in education as speakers.

The theme of the 2013 American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP) meeting is "Natural Products at a Crossroad: Current and Future Directions". The meeting will be held on July 13-17th, 2013 at the Hyatt Regency at The Arch in St. Louis, MO with an additional event and educational lecture at the Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT), St Louis. The objective of the conference is to disseminate recent research advances in natural products and related fields of herbal medicine, ethnobotany, biodiversity, clinical pharmacognosy and nutrition to a national and international scientific audience. In particular, as this conference is in the Midwest, we are reaching out to the large number of academic institutions, faculty and students in the region to participate. Funding this award would help defray the costs of travel, accommodation and registration of invited speakers to this conference and the many students whom we hope to attract to the meeting, including women and underrepresented minorities. We have invited experts from the USA and around the globe from the natural products community who are recognized as leading experts in botanical medicine and drug lead discovery. This meeting is designed to give a voice to the broad based community of natural products scientists who practice or are trained to enter either traditional drug discovery disciplines and/or the fields of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), clinical pharmacognosy, ethnobotany, green chemistry, agro-biotechnology and science education. The conference will feature keynote speakers, award lectures, contributed lectures, a young investigators symposium, poster sessions and workshops. The abstracts will be published in the prestigious journal Planta Medica and selected full papers from the meeting will be presented for consideration in the Society's flagship ACS Journal of Natural Products.