Science Across Borders: 5th Annual Natural Health Product Research Conference—March 26–29, 2008, Toronto, Canada

Canada is experiencing a growing interest in the use of alternative therapies and products particularly natural health products (NHP). In 1997, Canadians spent around C$ 2 billion on NHP. In an attempt to catch with this popularity of NHP use, Canadian researchers and administrators from academia, industry and government jointly established the Natural Health Product Research Society of Canada (NHPRS). Since its formation, NHPRS has been organizing an annual meeting which brings together world renowned researchers and experts in the area of NHP research. For 2008, the annual NHPRS meeting took place in Toronto from the 26th to 29th of March with a focus on ‘Science Across Borders: Global Natural Health Products Research’. The scientific program was spread into three days of plenary lectures and oral presentations. The different sessions containing these talks were on: ethnobotany around the world; chemical analysis of NHP; product standards and quality control; ethnomedicine; novel analytical approaches; systemic research, nutrisciences and molecular medicine; and drug development from NHP. The meeting proved to be a great success in terms of the speakers that were invited and based on the data that was presented which highlighted recent research taking place in the field of NHP not only in Canada but from many parts of the world.