The Spanish ESCOP member – Sociedad Española de Fitoterapia (SEFIT) celebrated its 25th anniversary with the 13th Congreso de Fitoterapia. The international congress took place November 6th to 9th at the Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l’Alimentació at the Universitat de Barcelona.
More than 150 participants from several European and Latin American countries followed the presentations, among those “The ESCOP´s greetings to SEFIT on its 25th anniversary” given by the Chair of ESCOP Dr. E. Wolfram. The plenary lecture “Regulation of herbal medicinal products in Europe: efficacy, safety and quality” by the ESCOP Board member Dr. Barbara Steinhoff summarised important legislative developments in the field of phytotherapy and in his plenary lecture, Prof. R. Bauer from the University of Graz gave an overview over “Twenty five years of Phytotherapy in Europe” with interesting future perspectives.
ESCOP´s sincerest congratulations to this successful and very informative congress go to Prof. Dr. Salvador Cañigueral Folcarà (President of SEFIT) and Dr. Bernat Vanaclocha (Vicepresident of SEFIT and Board member of ESCOP) and their excellent organisational team. The ESCOP delegates also very much enjoyed networking with the participants from many countries.
As a part of the congress, the organisers also hosted ESCOP´s regular Board and Scientific Committee meetings and the AGM, a generous invitation for which ESCOP wants to express its gratitude. As a pre-congress event, the delegates were invited to a very interesting visit of the company Euromed, producing standardized herbal extracts for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetic industries. The work in the Board meeting included the formal preparations for the AGM and among several other topics also lively discussions of future joint projects in the field of education in phytotherapy with organisations all over the world. In the Scientific Committee, ESCOP could welcome new members, namely Dr. Anthony Booker from UK, Prof. Dr. Marcin Ożarowski from Poland and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Patricia Rijo from Portugal. In the work of the Sci. Comm. the monographs Absinthii herba and Coriandri aetheroleum were finalized and followed by thorough discussion of the monographs Hibisci flos, Coriandri fructus and Centella. It was a great opportunity for ESCOP to come together in Barcelona and continue its work on projects and monographs within the frame of the 13th Congreso de Fitoterapia.
Many thanks to SEFIT for their generous hospitality.