Navindra Seeram: Natural Products Researcher

Navindra Seeram, URI assistant professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences, was named the 2009 Young Scientist of the Year by the American Chemical Societys Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

His goal is to educate the research community and the public about the many benefits of a variety of plant and berry foods, as well natural products.

His message is receiving widespread attention--he was quoted in Nutrition Action Health, Good Housekeeping, Mens Health and the Newport Mercury. He had two of the Top Ten Most Accessed Articles in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in 2008. He is the editor of the Clinical Pharmacognosy Series, a new CRC Press (Taylor and Francis) book series that delves into uses and benefits of natural products in clinical pharmacy practice.

For more on Seeram's research and work at URI, check out these stories:

Pharmacy professor is berry, berry excited about medicinal plant research at URI: http://www.uri.edu/news/releases/index.php?id=4603

URIs College of Pharmacy bolsters natural products chemistry work:
http://www.uri.edu/news/releases/index.php?id=4329

URI student unlocking secrets of Jamun berry to treat cancer:
http://www.uri.edu/news/releases/index.php?id=4689

From the earliest of times, ancient cultures
indigenous people have used plants for medicinal

purposes. If you come around here, what you're
going to see here is another herb which you

probably don't know about but it's the Cuban
version of Oregano, it's called Cuban Oregano.

The leaves have been used by my mom and my
grandma as a seasoning when they cook, and

as you can see here it's used in South America
for sore throat, for treating coughs, congestion

and so on. So here you can see a sugar cane,
native to India, grown widely in the U.S.,

and also in South America, has been used as
a topical antiseptic. There are other plants,

for example, this plant here, it's called
a Madagascar Perriwinkle and it has actually

provided us with two anti-cancer drugs, vincristine
and vinblastine, and as you can see here,

you know these compounds who are isolated
and have been developed into prescription

anti-cancer drugs.

About fifty thousand years
ago when ancient man was eating a lot of plants,

plant-based diet, roots and tubers and berries,
our genes expect plant-based diet. If you

don't get that diet and you're moving towards
more meat based, "inflammatory" based diet,

then you're actually cheeting yourself from
the wonderful benefits you can get from fruits

and vegetables. The color in their diet, many
American's diet, is catchup or mustard, not

that that's wrong, but the colors I would
want to see in your diet should be berries

and fruits and vegetables and spices and herbs.
Most of the world's population do not have

access to a doctor or to medical care in the
way that we regard western medicine, and therefore

people in other parts of the world are always
using plants. My interets are in evaluating

these folklore, these medicines, that have
been used traditionally and to put a modern

research focus and find out is this really
true, if so, what's the active ingredient

in that plant that's giving it it's medicinal
properties. After spending five years at UCLA

I started looking elsewhere for new challenges,
and in looking at different schools URI emerged

from among many as a very small, unique, beautiful
school where I could be in a great location

but at the same time be in a school in the
College of Pharmacy which has a very rich

history in natural product chemistry. My lab
is now fully-functional. I have a great team

of grad students and post-doc fellow. We have
undergrad students who volunteer in the lab.

So it's a perfect picture to me. I want to
take our school into the next generation,

I want to bring in the best, the brightest
grad students, teach the brightest undergraduate

students and inspire them to continue the
work that I am doing today so that they can

be the next generation of scientists.