NIH Creates New Center To Study Echinacea, St. John's Wort

NIH Creates New Center To Study Echinacea, St. John's Wort

BETHESDA, Md.--The National Institute ofEnvironmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the Office of Dietary Supplements(ODS), components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (www.nih.gov),announced July 25 a five-year, $6 million grant for establishing a researchcenter in Ames, Iowa, to study echinacea and St. John's wort.

The Center for Dietary Supplement Research will be acollaboration between Iowa State University (ISU), Ames, and the University ofIowa, Iowa City. The center will be directed by Diane Birt, Ph.D., chair of thedepartment of food science and human nutrition at ISU.

"The new center joins five other centers to move NIH intoexciting scientific areas relating to dietary supplements used by millions ofpeople in the United States and around the world," said Paul Coates, Ph.D.,ODS director. The other centers, created to study the effectiveness, safety andbiological action of various botanicals, are located at the University ofArizona, Tucson, (phytomedicine); the University of California, Los Angeles,(red yeast rice, green tea extract, St. John's wort); the University ofIllinois, Chicago, (black cohosh and red clover); the University of Missouri,Columbia, (phytoestrogens and polyphenols); and Purdue University and theUniversity of Alabama, Birmingham, (polyphenols, catechins and soy isoflavones).