ISCMR NEWSFLASH 

1. WHO Report

In the recent HerbalGram (#65, 2005) Dr. Mathias Schmidt, et al, have provided an excellent overview discussion of the WHO "Guidelines on Good Agricultural and Collection Practices for Medicinal Plants." Full-text of the article is available from the American Botanical Council. www.herbalgram.org

The WHO report points out that almost 75 percent of all botanical species used in the herb trade continue to be sourced from the wild, an unsustainable practice. The full report (October 2004) can be obtained at this URL: http://www.who.int/medicines/library/trm/medicinalplants/agricultural.shtml


2. IOM Report

The U.S. Institute of Medicine has recently published a report entitled "Dietary Supplements: A Framework for Evaluating Safety" which calls for, amongst other things, a more comprehensive, government-supported, post-market surveillance system for supplements. The report is a very concise history and analysis of the DSHEA regulatory structure and the challenges it represents to research and marketing of products in the United States.

Report can be purchased from most book dealers or directly from the National Academies Press at: http://books.nap.edu/catalog/10882.html