Pharmacognosy Institute (PHCI)

NAtural PRoducts ALERT or NAPRALERT® is a relational database of natural products. Ethnomedical, pharmacological, and biochemical information on extracts of organisms from in vitro, in situ, in vivo, in humans (case reports, non-clinical trials) and clinical studies are included. In addition, similar information is available for metabolites from natural sources.

The World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Herbal Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Pharmacy (WHO CC/HM, UIC) is one of 21 such designated centers in the World and the only such Centre in the Americas.

The UIC Center for Botanical Dietary Supplements (UIC Botanical Center) has been studying Botanical Dietary Supplements for safety, health and well-being since 1999 when it was founded with the support of NIH’s Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) and National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH).

The Dorothy Bradley Atkins Medicinal Plant Garden offers a unique venue for trainees and visitors to learn about medicinal plants and their historic and current uses.

Information about medicinal plants of Laos, based on collaborative research between the Medical Ethnobotany Group in the UIC Pharmacognosy Institute, the Institute of Traditional Medicine, the Ministry of Health in Vientiane (Lao PDR), and the Herbarium of the Chicago Field Museum.

The Program for Collaborative Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences (PCRPS) is an internationally renowned research program for the study of biologically active natural products.

This UIC-based Vietnam-Laos ICBG (International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups) program ran from 1998 to 2012. Funding support was provided by the Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health (NIH grants 1UO1 TW001015 01; 2UO1 TW001015 06; 3UO1-TW001015-10S1 & 10S2).