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Happy Accidents
HAPPY ACCIDENTS: LEADING THE WAY IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE
BY DANIEL P. SMITH
The World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Traditional Medicine at UIC promotes natural product research and education
A Synergistic Team
To hear Dr. Harry Fong tell it, the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Traditional Medicine at the UIC College of Pharmacy nearly 40 years ago was all one beautiful, happy accident.
After Fong and his UIC colleague, the late Dr. Norman Farnsworth, teamed with three colleagues to pen a 1975 paper about the potential of plants to serve as anti-fertility drugs, WHO officials tapped them for additional perspective.
DR. HARRY FONG
The following year, Farnsworth joined a WHO steering committee on natural products and Fong began assisting WHO in identifying international partners to research fertility-regulating natural agents amid rising concern about overpopulation.
Farnsworth and Fong’s early connections to WHO led UIC to become one of the esteemed health organization’s 10 original collaborating centers on traditional medicine in 1981.
And the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
Over five decades as colleagues, Drs. Farnsworth and Fong fueled UIC’s rise in traditional medicine and natural products.
Dr. Norman Farnsworth and Dr. Harry Fong first met as University of Pittsburgh students in 1955.
Until Farnsworth’s passing in 2011, the two scholars spent much of their professional careers working side by side, including overseeing the WHO Collaborating Centre for Traditional Medicine at UIC that debuted in 1981 with Farnsworth as its founding director.
Fong, now 83, calls Farnsworth his “teacher, friend, partner and everything else in between.”
“We even got to the point where we could finish each other’s sentences,” Fong says.
Whereas Farnsworth, an iconic figure in the field of pharmacognosy, boasted an impressive ability to think on his feet and naturally engage others, particularly scientists from diverse academic fields long before the term “interdisciplinary” became commonplace, Fong was more reserved, but no less active. For more than 30 years, Fong traveled the world leading workshops, trainings and consultative meetings on traditional medicine.
Together, Farnsworth and Fong fueled UIC’s efforts in traditional medicine and pushed the College of Pharmacy’s standing as an international leader in pharmacognosy. In a challenging, resource-heavy field of research given the biological and chemical complexity of plants, that’s no small feat, says Dr. Guido Pauli, who arrived at UIC in 2001 and worked with both Farnsworth and Fong.
“We wouldn’t have the status we have in the world today without Drs. Farnsworth and Fong,” says Pauli, the deputy director of UIC’s WHO Centre since October 2017. “They were a synergistic team that was passionate about pharmacognosy research, collaboration, discovery and education, and we are doing our best to maintain and train the future generation of pharmacognosists in this spirit.”
Multi-layered efforts
Successfully reupping its WHO designation every five years thanks to a deep and committed group of College of Pharmacy faculty, postdocs, students and support staff as well as external collaborators, the UIC-based WHO Centre is currently one of only 21 WHO-affiliated centers in the world studying traditional medicine and the only one located in the Americas.
Over the last 37 years, UIC’s WHO Centre has established itself as an internationally respected advocate for traditional medicine research and practice while also serving as a technical and educational resource in support of WHO’s efforts to promote and develop traditional, complimentary and integrative medicines. The WHO Centre’s work includes:
• Actively establishing research relationships with other WHO collaborating centers around the world to study the quality and safety of herbal medicines as well as the rational use of traditional medicines.
Along with its sister centers in Hong Kong and Australia, for example, the UIC Centre has reviewed literature regarding selected herbs of public health significance, launched research projects based on local needs and conducted risk evaluations of herbal products.
Dr. Fong on a trip abroad
Dr. Farnsworth
• Offering research exchange and training opportunities to scientists and scholars, an effort that emboldens traditional medicine research. In recent years, the Centre has led training in medical botany, medicinal plant chemistry and analysis, biology, pharmacology, toxicology and clinical evaluation as well as research methodologies and administration.
• Maintaining NAPRALERT, the world’s premier database on medicinal plants and natural products. Started by Farnsworth, the UIC-housed database – accessible at www.napralert.org – offers natural products’ literature data and information to researchers, clinicians, policy makers and others. NAPRALERT also informs WHO guidelines related to good herbal processing practices and the safe use of herbal medicines.
• Conducting pharmacological and clinical studies as well as research on natural products’ impact on conditions ranging from cancer and cardiovascular disease to menopause and fertility.
• Supporting WHO in the development of protocols and best practices as well as providing expertise on various issues related to traditional medicine. Past work includes WHO guidelines on quality control of herbal medicines as well as harvesting practices.
• Running consultative meetings in nations around the globe to discuss common issues and, in particular, how fellow WHO collaborating centers might better promote traditional medicine.
Among the UIC Centre’s most significant contributions are four monographs detailing the globe’s most popular medicinal plants. Published between 1999-2009, the monographs share descriptions of the plants, including botanical, chemical and biological properties as well as applications.
“These monographs are the international standard for understanding these common medicinal plants,” says Fong, who considers the monographs his lasting contribution to the field.
While the conventional medicine system is well standardized, governed by regulations and licenses, traditional medicine has long avoided such oversight, sometimes to the detriment of its credibility and efficacy. According to Fong, UIC’s work provides valuable balance, promoting quality herbal medicine practice that strengthens the field.
Dr. Guido Pauli Norman R. Farnsworth Professor of Pharmacognosy
Dr. Chun-Tao “CT” Che Harry H.S. Fong Professor of Pharmacognosy
“Everything with these plants from the ground to the table,” he says.
Moving into the future
While UIC’s WHO Centre has played an undeniable role in shaping WHO’s stance on natural products, it has also propelled the College of Pharmacy and pushed faculty into an accomplished and diverse international network.
“Our programs at UIC in natural products, botanicals and pharmacognosy are among the best in the world and being aligned with WHO attests to this sustained excellence,” College of Pharmacy Dean Dr. Glen Schumock says, adding that the WHO Centre also creates opportunities for faculty, students and trainees across the College to be involved in a dynamic and active field.
As traditional medicine attracts swelling interest from laymen as well as pharmaceutical and biomedical enterprises, UIC’s WHO Centre is now tasked to keep pace. Without the late Farnsworth and with Fong now retired, leadership of the Centre rests in the hands of Dr. Chun-Tao “CT” Che and Dr. Guido Pauli.
“UIC has been well known for natural products and traditional medicine research and education since the 1970s and our responsibility is to continue this tradition and maintain its perspective,” Che confirms.
With WHO particularly focused on promoting traditional medicine in developing countries, which depend more heavily on natural medicine given their economic realities, UIC’s WHO Centre looks to remain at the forefront of innovative training activities, education and research that advances the field.
“We still don’t know enough about how traditional medicines unfold their therapeutic potential, but we’re well positioned at UIC with our unique technologies and perspective on natural medicines to leverage decades of great work at the WHO Centre and advance science in this complex field,” Pauli says.
Not bad for a happy accident.
