It gives me great pleasure to invite you to the maiden International Conference on Alternate Sweeteners, in conjunction with the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi, Lagos. This conference is organised to bring all stakeholders academia and industries together, with a view to exchanging ideas on alternate sweeteners from natural sources. This is because the commonly known sweeteners like sugar, saccharin, cylamates etc. have been implicated in several chronic diseases such as atherosclerosis, obesity, diabetes mellitus and cancer.
One of the natural sources of alternate sweeteners is the plant, Thaumatococcus danielli, from which the sweetener, thaumatin, is isolated. As such the theme of this conference is: Harnessing the potentials of Thaumatococcus danielli, with a view to discussing all issues relating to this plant, including its agronomy and biotechnology, processing and scale-up, industrial utilization and applications, as well as health implications of this plant and its isolated sweeteners.
In consonance with the general objectives of this conference, contributions are welcome in all areas of alternate sweeteners. On behalf of the organising committee of this conference, I cordially invite you to attend the first ever conference on alternate sweeteners. We look forward to welcoming you to Lagos.
Yours sincerely,
Prof. B.O. Elemo