Pacific College of Oriental Medicine News & Events

When the Ten Thousand Things are seen in their Oneness, We return to the Origin where we have always been. - Sengtan

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Oriental Medicine Newspaper

NEWS RELEASE

August 1, 2003

For More Information Contact: Rebecca Wilkowski, Phone: (800) 729-0941

NIH Awards Research Grant to Pacific College Graduate

The National Institute of Health has awarded a grant of over $50,000 to Neil Demarse, a graduate of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine and student at Baruch College, to analyze Chinese herbs for the presence of pesticides.

Working biochemist and Baruch College faculty member Chandrika Kulatilleke, Demarse has been analyzing herbs imported from China since the beginning of March. Demarse said he used two main methods: gas chromotography, which evaporates small amounts of herbs and then measures their atomic properties; and nuclear magnetic residence, which measures the quantity of hydrogen and carbon to determine the structure of molecules so that they can be compared to those of pesticides.

Though Demarse said that results have been varied, few pesticides have been found. While this may have been surprising to some because pesticides are not regulated in China, Demarse is not surprised by this result.

"I wasn’t too surprised because I know people know that these herbs are for health reasons, so they are probably regulating pesticide amounts on their own," said Demarse, who is also a licensed acupuncturist.

Demarse said that he was inspired to do the research when he took a class at Pacific College taught by the Academic Dean in New York, Carl Miller.

"[Miller] really inspired me to get into it," Demarse said. "I wanted to get more involved in research because there’s not a lot of research in alternative medicine, and the people who are doing the research are the [practitioners of allopathic medicine], who don’t know anything about [alternative medicine]."

Though Demarse wants to continue doing his own research, he will take a break this August to attend the Ph.D. program in genetics at the Medical University of South Carolina. However, Demarse said that while there, he will continue to practice acupuncture and write articles about complementary medicine.

For more information, please call (800) 729-0941.

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