Research and Academia
Between 2019 and 2022 I was a researcher on a project at Kew Gardens in collaboration with Royal Holloway, University of London which was funded by Wellcome. Our aim was to create a methodology that can be used to botanically identify medicinal plants mentioned in ancient texts, with a focus on the materia medica of Ancient Greece.
Ancient texts hold much potential for modern medicine. For example, the Nobel Prize winning medicine artemisinin was discovered after scientists investigated 3000 year old Traditional Chinese Medicine texts. This medicine went on to treat over 600 million people with malaria, and would never have been discovered if scientists did not look into the past to see what medicines the natural world beholds. However, identifying the correct species of a plant mentioned in a text can be extremely troublesome. It is this problem we aim to solve with a highly skilled and multidisciplinary team of ethnobotanists, data scientists, archaeobotanists and historians. You can find one of our publications here, and there are more pending.
I was also an editor for the Journal of Herbal Medicine which is run by Elsevier. Scientists sent over their latest research in plant and fungi medicines and it was my job to review, critique and improve it. Needless to say this job was one of my favourites- what a delight to get to read about the latest global medicinal plant and fungi research every week!
Additionally I have published research in collaboration with UCL, Eden Project and Pukka Herbs authored with Professor Michael Heinrich. The research is entitled Herbal medicine: Who cares? The changing views on medicinal plants and their roles in British lifestyle. Here I surveyed over 400 members of the British public to understand their relationship with medicinal plants, and I took a particular interest in why natural health is being embraced more. I also focused on people's relationship with herbal medicines in relation to pharmaceuticals, people's perception of quality control and which medicinal plants they grow themselves. My work was represented at the annual Spices and Medicine conference at UCL, the British Herbal Medicine Association and the Herbal History Research Network.
The American Botanical Council is a globally renowned resource for herbal medicine science, research and sustainability within the industry. It was my pleasure to write a series of HerbClips for them, where I condensed scientific papers into digestible short pieces for people to learn from easily. I was also a contributor to the Society of Economic Botany (SEB) newsletter and was a part of their diversity, equity and inclusion committee. SEB is a society connecting ethnobotanists, researchers and academics "exploring the uses of, and our relationship with plants, cultures and our environment - plants and human affairs". They host many fascinating talks and conferences showcasing the latest plant research from around the world.
My research interests include; plant and fungi medicines, pharmacognosy, quality control of plants, cannabis, psychedelics, ethnopharmacology, neuroscience, holistic therapies, ethnobotany, entheogens, healing and wellbeing.