Dr. Kinghorn began his presentation with a brief overview of the geographic distinctions between the UK and Great Britain, mentioning the border of contention involving Brexit. It caught my attention when he mentioned that the plant alkaloid quinine was contributed by French scientists, as half of my biology class last semester was based on malaria and anti-malarial treatments. Alkaloids (compounds ending in -ine) are toxic primarily to the nervous system, so therapeutic amounts are crucial. He also spoke about artemisinin, another anti-malarial drug, that is used in combination therapy with other drugs. Defining ethnobotany as the relationship between man and vegetation, I was surprised to learn that 3/4 of the world’s population still relies on plants as their primary form of medicine. Nearly 72% of drugs of plant origin that are still used in western medicine can be traced back to original ethnobotany, evident that these early French and British scientists who worked with plant compounds were the real deal. Even the Calabar bean, originally used in court to judge potential criminals, is used today to treat glaucoma.
I was surprised to hear that THC was FDA approved 35 years ago for specific HIV-anorexia cases. CBD just recently made it through Phase III of clinical trials to treat childhood epilepsy, but it costs $65,000 for one course of therapy. It took around 4o years for his research group to get camptothecin, an anti-cancer agent, approved, so I can understand the slow progress of clinical approval of medicinal marijuana.
My favorite part of the presentation was learning about the “Doctrine of Signatures.” It says that plants resembling human body parts can be used to treat those body parts. Since Dr. Kinghorn is from England, it was cool to hear his perspective on which gardens and museums we should visit. It’s a bummer that most of the gardens will not be in bloom in March.