About the Scientific Committee
Since its foundation, the Scientific Committee of ESCOP has been producing monographs summarizing the medicinal uses of herbal drugs – an area which ESCOP considers to be of prime importance for scientific harmonisation of the therapeutic use of plants.
The monographs closely resemble the format of a Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC), which is a basis for the information required for medicinal products, e.g. in the package leaflet, as laid down in Directive 2001/83/EC.
In preparing herbal monographs, ESCOP ‘s Scientific Committee has the advantage that it can incorporate the views, knowledge and experience, not only of different nationalities, but also of individuals from different scientific and professional backgrounds, such as medical doctors, practising phytotherapists, pharmacognosists, pharmacologists, pharmacists, chemists and regulatory affairs specialists. The Committee, operating as two subcommittees, assesses information from published scientific literature on each herbal drug with the assistance of leading researchers on specific medicinal plants, who are invited to meetings of the Committee for discussion and critical evaluation of the literature.
Draft monographs prepared by the Scientific Subcommittees are then circulated to an independent Board of Supervising Editors for appraisal. These academic experts in phytotherapy and medicinal plant research are invited to comment on and criticise each draft and, where appropriate, their comments are incorporated into the final version. Thus each ESCOP monograph takes into account the available scientific literature, including textbooks, national experience and the advice of many authorities on the subject.
ESCOP believes that the work of its Scientific Committee represents European harmonisation at its best and presents the herbal monographs as an example of what can be achieved by cooperation among European scientists.
Members of the Scientific Committee
- Karine Ancolio Morcq – France
- Prof. Dr. Anna Rita Bilia – Italy
- Dr. Jozef G. Corthout – Belgium
- Dr. Maria do Céu Costa – Portugal
- Dr. Dezsö Csupor – Hungary
- Prof. Dr. med Jürgen Drewe – Switzerland
- Dr. F. M. Van den Dungen – Netherlands
- Dr. Sarah Edwards – United Kingdom
- Dr. Marijke Frater-Schröder – Switzerland
- Dr. Lene Gudiksen – Denmark
- Dr. Ingrid Hook – Ireland
- Dr. Stephan Horsten – (Co-Chairman) – Netherlands
- Roberta Hutchins – United Kingdom
- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Liselotte Krenn – Austria
- Dr. Andrzej Ostrowicz – Poland
- Dr. Mathias Schmidt – Germany
- Dr. Barbara Steinhoff – (Co-Chairman) – Germany
- Dr. Sonja Sturm – (Co-Secretary) – Austria
- Dr. Evelyn Wolfram – Switzerland
- Prof. Dr. Funda Nuray Yalçin – (Co-Secretary) – Turkey
- Andrea Zangara – Italy
Former members
- M. L Abou-Chacra (France)
- M. Aslam (United Kingdom)
- M. C. Bonjean (France)
- P. R. Bradley (United Kingdom)
- M. R. H. Brautigam (Netherlands)
- L. Brimer (Denmark)
- J. G. Bruhn (Sweden)
- K. Brühwiler (Switzerland)
- F. Chaumelle (France)
- F. Chialva (Italy)
- P. Chirilă (Romania)
- D. Corrigan (Ireland)
- B. Eberwein (Germany)
- I. Egeberg (Norway)
- V. Etges (Germany)
- N. Fuzzati (Italy)
- M. J. M. Gijbels (Netherlands)
- A. Groubert (France)
- D. Guédon (France)
- C. Harvala (Greece)
- S. Hicks (United Kingdom)
- P. Jean-Fean (France)
- R. Kalbermatten (Switzerland)
- B. F. Knudsen (Denmark)
- F. Lafforgue (France)
- N. Linnenbrink (Switzerland)
- R. Moldavan (Romania)
- C. Nicolai (Germany)
- S. Palm (Sweden)
- A. Peireira da Silva (Portugal)
- S. Philianos (Greece)
- A. Riva (Italy)
- C. Röhl (Switzerland)
- F. Sandberg (Sweden)
- G. Schönbeck (Austria)
- G. Seidel (Germany)
- D. Semeelen (Belgium)
- E. Sezik (Turkey)
- N. M. Sitaras (Greece)
- B. Søholm (Denmark)
- W. Spincemaille (Belgium)
- F.F. Vincieri (Italy)
- C. Violon (Belgium)
- E. Wildi (Switzerland)
- M. Willoughby (United Kingdom)
- J. K. Wold (Norway)
- H. H. Zeylstra (United Kingdom)
