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The Garden is a partner, with UMC and the University of Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa, in The International Center for Indigenous Phytotherapy Studies (TICIPS), directed by Bill Folk (UMC) and Quinton Johnson (UWC), a new and unique project designed to test traditional South African herbal remedies in contexts ranging from in vitro assays to a clinical trial. With researchers from Washington University [Ming You] and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center [Karel Schubert], the Garden has also begun to study a set of Chinese herbs that have potential cancer-preventing effects. Likewise, researchers [Ikhlas Khan's lab] at the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi have collaborated with the Garden to explore chemical variation in plant materials ranging from wild ginger rhizomes to pumpkin seeds, and the Garden engages in field collections to support NCNPR's program of in vitro screening for potentially useful new compounds. These are only a portion of the many projects in which the Garden's taxonomic expertise, field experience and access to plant material work synergistically with the chemical or biomedical expertise brought to the table by our many collaborators to enhance our understanding of natural products. |
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| © 1995- Missouri
Botanical Garden, All Rights Reserved |
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he Garden is a participant in several multi-institution research projects
involving medicinal plants, including the University of Missouri at Columbia's
(UMC's) Center for Phytonutrient and Phytochemical Studies, directed by
Dennis Lubahn. The Garden locates, identifies, and vouchers plant material
for collaborators performing basic research on the chemistry and in vitro
or in vivo activities of medicinal plants. As a part of this project,
Wendy Applequist, Greg Gust, and Barbara Alongi are preparing a manual
to assist in the identification of medicinal plants as they are found
in commerce, in connection with which research relating to the taxonomy,
anatomy and nomenclature of specific medicinal plants is carried out.
Scott Woodbury at the Shaw Nature Reserve and colleague Andy Thomas at
the Southwest Center of the University of Missouri's Agricultural Experiment
Station are supervising research into the cultivation of the popular herb
black cohosh (Actaea racemosa); if this and other woodland perennial
herbs can be better cultivated, the potential exists to introduce to Missouri
farmers a new alternative crop suitable for agroforestry, while minimizing
harvesting pressure on remaining wild populations.