Phytomedomics and Nutriomics and ICPN

The incidence rate of several deadly diseases, particularly cancer, diabetes and AIDS, that cause the suffering of 20, 171, and 33 million people, respectively in the world, is highly alarming. Hunger and malnutrition, together affecting over 800 million people, are also aggravating the threat to global human health. Utilization of medicinal plants and nutraceutical crops are potential sources of alternative and complimentary medicines to mitigate these problems. The present world market of herbal drugs and dietary supplements is somewhere in between $20-50 million and is predicted to be at $5 trillion by 2050. Presently, plant-based drugs contribute 50% to clinical drugs. This commercial importance coupled with severe prevalence of the deadly diseases underscores the need for the generation of genetic, genomics, and breeding resources in medicinal plants and functional food crops. Genetic linkage maps for at least two medicinally-active plants, periwinkle and bitter melon, have already been developed. Results on biosynthesis, biotransformation, and metabolic pathways of many therapeutic secondary metabolites have been reported along with structural and functional genomic resources for at least a few plants. Some of these encouraging achievements will be presented by the speakers of this workshop. This will be followed by the second meeting of the International Consortium for Phytomedomics and Nutriomics (ICPN) that will include a comprehensive discussion on drafting the white paper for whole genome sequencing of a model medicinally-active plant and generation of structural and functional genomics resources of a few selected plants; and identification of national and international funding agencies.