Medicinal Plants in their Environments: The chemical warfare of ethnobotany скачать в хорошем качестве

Medicinal Plants in their Environments: The chemical warfare of ethnobotany

Speaker: John de la Parra, Visiting Lecturer, Tufts Experimental College How do environmental influences impact ethnobotanical choices? This can be a crucial, yet often explored area of drug discovery when we consider the fact that humans have relied on plant-derived therapies for thousands of years. Indeed, the historical remedies for diseases ranging from malaria to cancer trace an evolution of human-plant interactions. This presentation will discuss 1.) the past, present, and future of environmental influences upon ethnobotanical drugs 2.) what we can learn from a plant’s environmental interactions, and 3.) how biotechnology, particularly when it is influenced by indigenous environmental knowledge, presents new paths to diversify the drug discovery process. BIOGRAPHY John de la Parra is an ethnobotanist and biotechnologist who works to progress both women's health and medicinal plant research, particularly for antidiabetic drugs and treatments for neglected tropical diseases. His scientific interests are in the foundations of indigenous women's medicine and the rigorous scientific development of pharmaceuticals from the plants they have used. To that end, his research involves projects in highly-complex sample analysis, plant biotechnology, and the biosynthesis of plant-derived drugs. He first became curious about how women use medicinal plants while growing up on a small farm in Alabama and learning from his grandmother. From there he studied Chemical Engineering at the Cooper Union in New York City. He subsequently founded Vine Research and Consulting where he has investigated, collected, cultivated, and verified rare and unusual plant material for use in novel pharmaceutic al research in industry and academia. He will complete his PhD in chemistry this spring at Northeastern University. Besides teaching chemistry for several years, he has also developed a class and associated text entitled “Medicinal Plants: From the Sacred to the Scientific” (forthcoming from Springer Nature). Recent press coverage: http://news.northeastern.edu/2017/07/...