26th International Congress of the International Society for Ethnopharmacology (SFEC-ISE 2027)
Translating Traditional Therapies – Explore, Educate and Empower
Returning to its historic birthplace, the 26th International Congress of the International Society for Ethnopharmacology (SFEC-ISE 2027) commemorates the 15th anniversary of the Society for Ethnopharmacology, India. The Society emerged from the landmark 12th ISE Congress held in 2012 at Jadavpur University, inspired by the late A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, with a vision to bridge traditional knowledge and modern clinical and translational science.
The Congress is organised by SFE-India in association with the Centre for Evaluation of Traditional Medicine (TradMed CoE), School of Natural Product Studies, Jadavpur University. As a flagship international outreach initiative of TradMed CoE, ISE-SFEC 2027 reflects the Centre’s mandate in translational ethnopharmacology, metabolomics-driven standardisation, systems pharmacology, regulatory-aligned validation, and sustainable bioresource innovation.
Under the theme “Translating Traditional Therapies – Explore, Educate and Empower,” the Congress advances the paradigm of Globalizing Local Knowledge and Localizing Global Technology. It integrates biological, chemical, ecological, computational, engineering, and social sciences with traditional and Indigenous knowledge systems to address sustainable healthcare, biodiversity conservation, equitable bioeconomy development, and culturally grounded innovation.
Core Scientific and Translational Focus
- Natural Product Discovery and Mechanistic Validation: Ethnopharmacology-guided bioprospecting; phytochemical profiling; dereplication; metabolomics, proteomics, chemoinformatics; bioassay-guided fractionation; network pharmacology; systems biology; ADME/Tox evaluation; and translational pipelines connecting molecular discovery with preclinical and clinical validation.
- AI-Driven and Computational Ethnopharmacology: Artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive modelling, data mining, knowledge graphs, digital documentation, safety profiling, and blockchain-enabled traceability.
- Sustainable Bioresource Management and One Health: Conservation biology, ecosystem restoration, climate-resilient cultivation, regenerative systems, and integrative One Health frameworks linking human, animal, and environmental health.
- Biotechnology and Green Biomanufacturing: Synthetic biology, marine and microbial bioresources, green chemistry, process intensification, waste valorisation, and circular bioeconomy models for scalable phytopharmaceutical production.
- Quality, Standardisation and Regulatory Science: Authentication, batch consistency, contaminant profiling, herb–drug interaction assessment, pharmacovigilance, and harmonisation with WHO, EMA, FDA, and CDSCO frameworks.
- Nutrieconomy and Preventive Health: Food-as-medicine systems, nutraceuticals, functional foods, nutrigenomics, probiotics, and sustainable dietary models.
- Ethics, Governance and Indigenous Data Sovereignty: Compliance with the Nagoya Protocol, Convention on Biological Diversity, Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS), CARE Principles, and protection of Indigenous intellectual heritage.
International Collaborations and Global Scientific Partnerships
ISE-SFEC 2027 is designed as a high-impact collaborative platform connecting academia, industry, regulatory bodies, and international scientific societies including the IIT system, Phytochemical Society of Europe, Phytopharm (Russia), Royal Society of Chemistry, Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research (GA), and the American Society of Pharmacognosy.
- Promotion of cross-continental research networks in pharmacognosy, phytochemistry, metabolomics, and systems pharmacology.
- Joint symposia, thematic workshops, and technology-transfer dialogues.
- Global harmonisation of quality standards and regulatory science.
- Early-career researcher mobility programs and collaborative grants.
- Translational pipelines from laboratory discovery to industrial scale-up.
By bringing together premier scientific societies and translational ecosystems, ISE-SFEC 2027 will accelerate interdisciplinary convergence, enhance global visibility of Indian traditional medicine research, and catalyse sustainability-driven international partnerships.
