On June 8, 2009, AMOREPACIFIC Corp. (President and CEO, Suh Kyung-bae) held a ceremony to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KIOM) for collaborative researches on DNA analysis techniques and scientific resource application of Korean medicinal herbs.
The ceremony was held at the international conference room of KIOM Guahm Hall located in Daejeon with.the presence of Ki-ok Kim, president of KIOM and Hak-hee Kang, chief direrctor of AmorePacific R&D Institute.
By signing the MOU, AmorePacific will make collaborative researches with KIOM in DNA analysis techniques for medicinal herbs; applications of Bio-Informatics on traditional medicine; and historical investigation on principles of Korean traditional medicine from perspective of skin science and technology. In addition, AmorePacific will establish a discrimination standard for Korean medicinal herbs with excellent efficacy by collaborative researches with KIOM. It is expected that this MOU and collaborative researches will demonstrate the excellence of Korean medicinal herbs differentiated from substandard oversupplied ones, and ultimately contributing to improving reliability and availability of relevant products made of Korean medicinal herbs among customers.
"I hope that this MOU will contribute to providing customers with more excellent application technologies and raw resources of medicinal herbs," said Hak-hee Kang, President of AmorePacific R&D Institute.
AmorePacific has rolled out a variety of activities to procure and apply domestic medicinal herbs with outstanding quality. In September 2008, AmorePacific held a ceremony to sign on establishment of "AmorePacific Medicinal Herb Garden" on the scale of 3,300 m2 with College of Agriculture and Life Sciences of Kangwon National University for joint research to develop raw materials for medicinal herbal cosmetics. In October 2008, AmorePacific also held another ceremony to sign on contract with Oriental Medicine Center in Jaecheon (one of top 3 Korean traditional medicine markets, located in Chungbuk province) upon cultivation, quality certification and procurement of high-quality Korean medicinal herbs. AmorePacific will continue to make these collaborative efforts to create a robust environment to discover new efficacy, materials and prescriptions based on traditional Korean medicine and skin science, and make the use of research findings to constantly produce and procure safe and reliable products.
* [Note] Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KIOM)
KIOM established in 1994 is a national institute specializing in Korean traditional medicine to conduct research in further studies on scientific applications of Korean traditional medicine theories; standardization of acupuncture, moxibustion and meridian system; and a database on Korean traditional medicine literature, ultimately contributing to improving national health. For instance, KIOM has successfully performed studies on herb varieties classifications using DNA analysis techniques.