Escop

Acronym for European Scientific Cooperative on Phytotherapy, an association founded in 1984 based on the merger of numerous national specialist societies for phytotherapy. The HPMC was established at the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in London.

The main objective of the ESCOP is to promote and develop the scientific status of herbal medicinal products in Europe. A further aim is to harmonize the regulatory status of phytotherapeutics at European level. An ESCOP commission regularly produces scientifically based monographs on various plants used for medicinal purposes. These are produced in the structure of a"Summary of Product Characteristics" (SPC) in accordance with EC Directive 65/65EEC and are constantly being expanded.

The European Scientific Cooperative on Phytotherapy (ESCOP) summarizes the increase in knowledge in the field of phytotherapy with its monographs. These monographs are now published online as soon as they are written and can be downloaded as pdf files from the ESCOP website(www.escop.com). With this type of publication, ESCOP makes it easy to obtain up-to-date and well-founded information on medicinal drugs.

1. Knöss W et al. (2014) Legal framework. Pharmakon focus issue: complementary therapies. Pharmakon 2: 143-150.