The great success of the previous four Euro-Mediterranean conferences of Natural Products, Pharma and Complementary Medicine (BioNat) strongly inspires us to organize the 5th BioNat convention (BioNat-V). The first conference of this series took place in Cairo in 2009 and it was sponsored by the Euro-Mediterranean Association of Life Sciences (EMALS). EMALS is now established as a well-recognized World Forum for the dissemination of cutting-edge breakthroughs in Natural Products and Life Sciences in general. The BioNat conferences Series bring together academic and industrial scientists, decision makers, technologists, young graduates and students from across the globe to exchange information and discuss issues relating to natural products.

Natural products are chemical compounds or substances produced by living organisms that usually have pharmacological or biological activities for use in drug discovery. The chemical diversity, structural complexity, affordability, lack of substantial toxic effects and inherent biological activity of natural products makes them ideal candidates for new therapeutics. Microorganisms produce a large variety of antimicrobial agents; plant and marine organisms are proven rich sources of potent chemicals with anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and anticancer activity. Venoms and toxins often specifically interact with macromolecular targets in the body. Attention is also devoted to the herbal medicine, plant-derived drugs, phytopharmaceuticals, bioactive proteins, anti-nutrients, synthetic drugs, ethno-pharmacology, biodiversity as well as legislations and research strategies.

BioNat Themes

If Mother Nature gives us the disease, Mother Nature also provides the cure. The word pharmaceutical comes from the Greek word “pharmakeia”. The earliest drugstores date to the middle ages. The first known drugstore was opened by Arabian pharmacists in Baghdad in 754, and soon after many more began operating throughout the medieval Islamic world and eventually medieval Europe. By the 19th century many of the drugstores in Europe and North America had eventually developed into larger pharmaceutical companies; the source of all these drugs sold in drug stores was natural products. According to some estimates up to 75% of the drugs being used today have their roots in natural products. For instance, most modern medicines with a market in billions of dollars such as Statins for heart, Metformin for diabetes, Steroids for inflammation, Aspirin for pain and chemotherapeutic agents (such as paclitaxel, camptothecin, vinblastine, vincristine, thalidomide) for cancer are derived from natural sources. This conference is organized to discuss the past, present and future contribution of natural products to drug discovery. We will invite leaders in their fields of Pharma, Drug discovery, Medicine, Nutrition, Agriculture and Biotecnology to present their prominent findings at a venue in the island of Cyprus in the Southeastern Mediterranean Sea where most of this kind of work has its origins.

Conference package includes Conference bag; Abstract book (CD); Certificate of Attendance; Buffet lunch; Daily coffee breaks.

• All accepted abstracts will be published in the abstract CD as well as published online.

• BioNat offers group discounts (up to 15%) to institutions that register 15 or more employees. To qualify, all registrants in the group must be employed at the same institution and on the same campus. Group discounts are available only by Word Registration Form via Email.