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

BETHESDA, Md.--The National Institute of Environmental 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 research center in Ames, Iowa, to study echinacea and St. John's wort.

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

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

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