The project, entitled "Hawthorn as a new Canadian agroforestry crop for functional foods and nutraceuticals" aims to lay the foundation for the agroforestry exploitation of native hawthorn species by developing methods for the analysis, traceability, and authentication of NHPs derived from Canadian hawthorn species by using DNA barcodes and microsatellite fingerprints, by deploying new methods of chemical analysis, and by developing and optimizing methodologies to aid in their production. We will also seek to confirm heart and cardiovascular protective properties in an established rodent model 
and elucidate their mode of action.