|
In
April 2013, the colleges of pharmacy at the University of Mississippi (Ole
Miss) and the University of Rhode Island (URI) announced the openings of new
medicinal plant garden spaces, harking back to the days when medicinal plant
gardens were an essential component of pharmacy education.
“Medicinal plants and crude drugs used to be part
of pharmacy curriculum and [they were] taken out,” said Ikhlas Khan, PhD, assistant
director of Ole Miss’s National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR)
and the director of the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for
Excellence on Botanical Dietary Supplements Research (email, June 26, 2013).
“Now [they are] being reintroduced in different ways.”
Maynard W. Quimby Medicinal Plant Garden Complex
The new Maynard Quimby Medicinal Plant Garden
complex at Ole Miss was dedicated on April 17, 2013, in conjunction with the 12th
annual Oxford International Conference on the Science of Botanicals. The
expansive facilities, many of which are Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) certified, include an
herbarium; administrative, laboratory, and maintenance buildings; a shade house;
greenhouse; and horticulture building.
University officials are calling the new complex
the “greenest” facility of its main campus in Oxford, Mississippi. “Energy-efficient features … include natural
lighting, a 20,000-gallon tank to collect rainwater running off the roofs and
green 'walls' of climbing medicinal plants to shade its laboratory building in
summer.”1
The garden itself is registered with Botanic
Gardens Conservation International and is expected to be a vital component of
the College of Pharmacy. “We have over two thousand species of medicinal plants
at the garden,” said Dr. Khan. “[The] focus has been to collect plants which
have medicinal value to create authentic samples that can be used for
authenticating raw material and perform[ing] analyses that can be used to
develop quality parameters.”
According to Alice M. Clark, the vice chancellor
for research and sponsored programs at Ole Miss, “The Quimby Garden maintains a
diverse, accurately identified, and medicinally important living plant
collection to support drug discovery efforts” at the College of Pharmacy and
through the NCNPR. “But its value and impact extend far beyond our own research
programs.”1
In addition to being open to the public and
supporting drug discovery efforts, the new garden will include a seed bank and
herbarium where seeds and plants can be cleaned, stored, and catalogued. FDA
employees also will use it as a part of their training on Good Manufacturing
Practices.
“The School of Pharmacy at University of
Mississippi has a long history of natural products research, and having a
garden to teach and research plants is an essential component,” said Dr. Khan. “Anyone
is welcome. We have guided tours for school kids and senior [citizens] who are
interested in knowing more about nature and medicinal aspects of plants.”
The
garden’s namesake, the late Maynard M. Quimby, PhD, was a professor of
pharmacognosy at Ole Miss, the president of the American Society of
Pharmacognosy from 1967 to 1968, and a specialist in the botany of cannabis (Cannabis sativa). A bronze bust of Dr.
Quimby currently stands in the laboratory building’s lobby.
URI Pharmacy Courtyard and Heber W. Youngken Jr. Medicinal Plant
Garden
Also in April, the University of Rhode Island
opened a new College of Pharmacy Courtyard and rededicated its Heber Youngken
Jr. Medicinal Plant Garden. According to Donald H. DeHayes, provost and vice
president of academic affairs, “The University is justifiably proud of its
interdisciplinary approach to education, and the courtyard and garden are
excellent examples of our commitment to that approach.”2
“This
is truly a place where one can learn about natural pharmaceuticals, nutrition,
and aesthetics,” DeHayes continued.2
The
original garden opened in 1958 and was dedicated in 1994 to Dr. Youngken, the
founding dean of the College of Pharmacy and son of Heber Youngken Sr., a
famous pharmacognosist at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston and
an author of some of the first pharmacognosy texts published in the United
States in the early part of the 20th century. Before the
rededication, the garden “was virtually hidden from the larger campus community
and was primarily a resource for pharmacy students and faculty, as well as other
researchers interested in the healing power of plants and natural products that
come from them.”2
Today,
the garden and new courtyard feature 200 species of medicinal plants, 500
ornamental plants, as well as various art installations including benches in
the shape of birch leaves, a “translucent sculptural frieze featuring panels
that depict plant life in laboratory slides,” as well as an arc wall that
serves as seating and divides the courtyard.
The
artistic components of the garden were created as part of the State of Rhode
Island’s requirement that any taxpayer-funded building must have an art component included in the space. “This courtyard and garden illustrate the
multiplicity of connections between nature and healing, research and teaching,
and art and science,” said DeHayes.2
Perhaps
more importantly, the courtyard and garden will serve as peaceful and
educational spaces for students, scientists, and the public. “This garden takes
the University and the College back to their roots as leaders in medicinal
plant research around the world,” said Navindra Seeram, PhD, assistant
professor of pharmacy and supervisor of the garden. “The rededication of this
garden emphasizes the importance of plant-based remedies over the centuries and
their important role in contemporary medicine. We are delighted that even the
casual visitor will now be able to learn about medicinal plants and the work we
do at URI to make society healthier.”2
ABC’s Founder and Executive Director Mark
Blumenthal was invited to deliver the keynote speech at the URI garden
dedication. “I am pleased to have been able to attend both dedications at Ole Miss and URI, and I think it is remarkable
that these two leading colleges of pharmacy have dedicated medicinal plant
gardens within only a few weeks of each other. Hopefully, these gardens will
help inspire a new generation of pharmacy students to pursue careers in natural
products research, or at least, be more receptive to considering the use of
medicinal plant-based preparations in their pharmacy practice.”
Although medicinal plant gardens such as the ones
at the Universities of Mississippi and Rhode Island have fallen out of favor as
important aspects of pharmacy curriculum, Dr. Khan hopes these spaces are the
beginning of a broader trend among universities and the public. “I am very
excited and hopeful that medicinal plant gardens will revive in all the schools
and will become integral part of the research and education effort,” he
said. “Public interest is growing and so is the research in this area.”
—Tyler Smith
References |
