394 5th annual natural health product research conference University of Illinois, USA. Norman presented the partic- ipants with a history of drug development as influenced by natural products. Beginning right from the 17th century, he travelled all through the time giving reference to some of the most notable discoveries from natural sources like that of reserpine and how this compound changed the overall scenario of pharmaceutical com- panies in the mid-20th century. After the discovery of reserpine, most of the pharmaceutical companies in those days initiated a NHP research unit in their companies to hunt for more plant-derived active compounds (40,41). He then touched upon the many anticancer and anti- diabetic compounds discovered in the late 1950s (42,43). Then in the late 20th century, the interest in natural product research faded away for the pharmaceuticals. But then, in that era, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, USA, and NHPD, Canada, were formed. According to Norman, the future for NHP is not very bright. This is because of the overall economic slump United States is going through, which will indirectly reduce the amount of funds available for NHP research. Pierre Haddad of University of Montreal, Canada, was the last notable speaker of the meeting. Being a recent recipient of a CIHR team grant to study Canadian aboriginal Boreal plants for their potential against diabetes, he enthralled the participants about his team project, its constitution and the results obtained so far. Pierre showed how engaging pharmacologists, clinician scientists, nutritionists, ethnobotanists, phytochemists and toxicologists can work to give scientific results on the effectiveness of plants used since centuries by indigenous people for diabetes care here in Canada (21,22). Conclusions This meeting of the NHPRS of Canada was a success- ful event not only because it brought together most of the members of this community of NHP researchers in Canada but also helped present the views of people on NHP from many other parts of the world including North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Like in the past years, this meeting showed the kind of basic and clinical NHP research taking place in Canada and hopefully will continue to do so in the coming years as well. Funding References The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (to M.N.G.). 1. Smith MJ, Spack T. Canada. In: Bodeker G, Ong CK, Grundy C, Burford G, Shein K (eds). WHO Global Atlas of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Kobe: WHO Centre for Health Development, 2005, 57–61. 2. Ramsay C, Walker M, Alexander J. Alternative Medicine Use in Canada: Use and Public Attitudes. Vancouver, BC: The Fraser Institute, 1999. 3. Health Canada, Natural Health Products Directorate. 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