Expeditions and other fieldwork

Southeast Asia Plant Collecting Project. — Since September 1986 a plant collecting project in Southeast Asia has been started by the Program for Collaborative Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences (PCRPS), University of Illinois, with funds from the United States National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the participation of the Arnold Arboretum (A), and the John G. Searle Herbarium (F). Similar projects have also been started for the tropics of America and Africa by the New York (NY) and Missouri (MO) Botanical Gardens, respectively. Under the project the tropical rain forests of S.E. Asia will be explored for the next 5 years in order to collect plant samples which will be screened for anti-cancer and anti-AIDS properties. This will be carried out by the NCI at their Frederick Cancer Research Facilities in Maryland. Voucher specimens will be collected and deposited in A, F, L, US, and the national herbaria of the host countries.