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Pure Appl. Chem. Vol.
74, No. 8, pp. v-vii (2002)
Pure and Applied
Chemistry
Vol. 74, Issue 8
11th IUPAC
International Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry Directed Towards
Organic Synthesis (OMCOS-11)*
Preface
The 13th International Carotenoid Society Symposium was held in Honolulu,
Hawaii 6-11 January 2002. This symposium, sponsored by the Cancer Research
Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii, was the second organized by
the International Carotenoid Society. Its focus was the role of carotenoids
in human health, and it attracted approximately 220 people from 26 countries,
including many delegates from pharmaceutical, chemical, and nutraceutical
companies. Owing to the generous support from many of these companies,
listed below, the organizers were able to offer financial support to
approximately 60 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. I would
like to thank all the participants for their lively contributions to
this meeting and the authors of these invited papers for timely delivery
of manuscripts and acceptance of my editorial comments.
While the emphasis of this symposium was indeed on human health, the
role of chemists in devising new methods for the commercial synthesis
of carotenoids and in understanding carotenoid chemistry, especially
as pertains to photochemical and free-radical reactions, was not forgotten.
These contributions are reflected in several of the papers in this journal.
In terms of human health, there is now intense interest in the role
of the tomato carotenoid lycopene in maintaining normal health of the
human prostate. Evidence was presented from epidemiological, clinical,
and cell culture studies that high levels of lycopene intake protect
men from prostate cancer, that supplementation of prostate cancer patients
with high levels of lycopene can reduce the pathological severity of
this cancer, and, finally, that addition of lycopene to prostate cancer
cells can induce programmed cell death. A second novel area wherein
carotenoids impact human health is their potential to prevent the most
common form of blindness in Western societysenile macular degeneration.
There is now growing evidence that, just as lutein and zeaxanthin protect
green plants against photodamage, these carotenoids, which are concentrated
in the macula of the retina (the area of most acute vision), also protect
this region against photodamage. The development of noninvasive techniques,
utilizing Raman spectroscopy of the human retina to measure carotenoid
content, may offer a means of identifying high-risk patients. It must
not be forgotten that the most vital role of carotenoids in the human
diet is to supply precursors to vitamin A, required for normal growth,
immunity, and vision. Tragically, in Third World societies, many infants
are deficient in vitamin A and either die early of infections or suffer
irreversible eye damage later in life. The delegates to this symposium
heard of efforts to increase the pro-vitamin A content of staple foods
in the diet of these countries, utilizing genetic engineering approaches.
The introduction of such modified plants offers enormous potential to
decrease suffering in these countries.
The 14th International Carotenoid Symposium will be held in Edinburgh,
Scotland in 2005, and we look forward to hearing of further developments
in this exciting field of chemistry and biology. This symposium was
supported by the following sponsors: Cancer Research Center of Hawaii,
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, and the following
corporate sponsors:
- Roche Vitamins and Fine Chemicals Division, Switzerland
- BASF Corporation, Germany
- Campbell Brands, USA
- Nutrilite Division of Access Business Group and the Rehnborg Center
for Nutrition and Wellness, USA
- Cognis Nutrition and Health, Australia
- Cyanotech Corporation, USA
- LycoRed, Natural Product Industries, Israel
- H. Reisman Corporation, USA
- Unilever Research Laboratories, Holland
- Chr. Hansen A/S, Denmark
- Heinz Foods, USA
- Fuji Chemical Industry Co. Ltd., Japan
- MicroGaia Inc, USA
- DSM Food Specialities, Nutritional Ingredients, Holland
- Kemin Foods L.C., USA
- Nikken Sohonsha Corporation, Japan
John S. Bertram
Program Chair and Symposium Editor
*Lecture presented at the 11th IUPAC International
Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry Directed Towards Organic Synthesis
(OMCOS-11), Taipei, Taiwan, 22-26 July 2001.
Other lectures are published in this issue, pp. 1369-1477.
Page last modified 18 September 2002.
Copyright © 2002 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
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