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Medicinal Botany

Our earliest human ancestors found plants to heal wounds, cure diseases, and ease troubled minds. People on all continents have long used hundreds, if not thousands, of indigenous plants, for treatment of various ailments dating back to prehistory. Knowledge about the healing properties or poisonous effects of plants, mineral salts, and herbs accumulated from these earliest times to provide health and predates all other medical treatment.

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 Introduction to Botany

Whether you call it botany, plant science or plant biology, it is one of the world's oldest natural sciences. That means that most colleges and universities will have a botany or plant science degree in their Natural Science or Biology department. Many of the top universities have botany degrees, but there has been a decline in recent years of students taking botany in favour of other environmental and natural sciences.

 What Do Botanists Do?

When I say botanist, you might think of a white-bearded man scampering around the woods collecting flowers. Maybe you think of a slightly nutty woman a la Professor Sprout in Harry Potter. Or perhaps you just shrug at me. What is a botanist and what do botanists do? The short answer is that botanists are scientists who study plants. They generally have a degree in biology, botany, or a related field from a university if they’re involved in research. That said, some plant specialists may not be classically trained in the sciences if their focus is more on traditional medicine or cultivation.

 Why is botany important? 8 benefits of teaching botany

Many high school biology textbooks include botany as a small chapter buried within lots of microbiology and other topics. This may lead many young people to believe that botany isn’t important or that it isn’t very complex. Nothing could be further from the truth! Many, many careers require a lot of botanical knowledge. In fact, botany–not technology–holds the answers to many of the pressing issues of our time.

Articles of Interest

Active Plant Ingredients Used for Medicinal Purposes

Plants produce many chemicals that are biologically active, not just in themselves, but also in other organisms. Some of these chemicals enhance their own survival. Some plants produce chemicals that act as herbicides to inhibit the growth of competing plants, such as the salicylic acid produced by willows. Other plants produce substances that deter browsing by insects and herbivores.

Botany on an Endangered Planet

I have spent my whole life learning about the natural world. I am a professional botanist whose career was focused for fifty-plus years on trying to use science to understand and “save” specific unusual components of our earth’s ecosystems. I have learned a lot about climate change over the many years since Al Gore published Earth in the Balance in 1992...

Economic Botany

Economic Botany is the study of plant-derived materials and their uses by humans. It looks at the ways that plants have been used throughout time to meet the needs of different societies and it studies the economic, environmental and cultural impacts of these uses. Economic Botany seeks to understand how plants are used, how they are grown and managed, how they can be sustainably harvested and what implications their use has for biodiversity and the environment.

How Can We Use Botany in Our Daily Lives?

Botany is the world’s oldest natural science and has evolved throughout the years to include structure, properties, and biochemical processes. Botany also studies how plants interact with the environment and plant diseases.

How Is Botany Connected to Spirituality and Human Health?

The relationship between plants and human health, plants and spirituality, or human health and spirituality has been known for thousands of years, yet only in recent years are researchers beginning to fully understand the depth and complexity of this topic, as well as the interrelatedness between all three groups.

Plant Parts Used for Medicinal Purposes

Medicinal properties derived from plants can come from many different parts of a plant including leaves, roots, bark, fruit, seeds, flowers. The different parts of plants can contain different active ingredients within one plant. Thus, one part of the plant could be toxic while another portion of the same plant could be harmless.

Plants Are Cool Too

"Plants Are Cool, Too!" is the web series acknowledging that animals are pretty interesting - but plants are cool, too!

Where Botany and Healthcare Intersect

When Ina Vandebroek, Ph.D., started to study how immigrant Caribbean communities use traditional plant-based medicines in their health care, she soon realized that her subjects often did not tell their doctors about the various remedies they are using.

Why Botany? Why now?

The XX International Botanical Congress officially started with an inspirational talk by Sandra Knapp - distinguished researcher at the Department of Life Sciences of the Natural history Museum of London (UK) - who reaffirmed the key role of plants as Nature’s heartbeat in terrestrial ecosystems.

Resources

Botanical Society of America

Our Mission: To inspire and promote an inclusive global community committed to advancing fundamental knowledge and innovation in the botanical sciences for the benefit of people and the environment.

Botanical Safety Consortium

The Botanical Safety Consortium will provide a sound scientific basis for integrating existing botanical safety & toxicity information with the latest toxicological tools.

Botany Health

Botany Health specializes in natural medicines aimed at helping people struggling with illness and disease, as well as people that just want to live an overall healthy life. Botany Health focuses on natural medicines and alternative treatment options that have been scientifically verified to have pharmacological activity against disease and illness

Western Plant Health

Western Plant Health is the premier industry trade association representing more than 90 percent of all the fertilizer and crop protection companies in California, Arizona and Hawaii.