10. Dr. Douglas Kinghorn

I thought the presentation on London that Dr. Kinghorn gave was incredibly interesting and informative. He brought up a lot of places that seemed very interesting to visit, such as the gardens he presented on and also some of the places he mentioned in his post-presentation discussion. It was obvious that he was very knowledgeable about English culture, and many other cultures around the world as well. I would say that the thing that made this presentation the most worthwhile and successful was the obvious relation to our trip, as well as his enthusiasm when presenting on topics he obviously knows very well.

One of the topics I often seem to neglect when I think of healthcare are the topics surrounding pharmacology. When I think of medicine, I tend to focus on more of the therapy and surgical side of treatment, some of which is only possible because of advances we have made in pharmacology. Dr. Kinghorn gave an interesting lecture on paradigm shifts related to plants and their medicinal benefits. I found this lecture intriguing because I tend to forget about how plants play a role in medicine.

Dr. Kinghorn talked about how different scientists, mostly botanists, have developed the field of pharmacology. While I am taking a pharmacology class currently, we tend to focus on the current topics in a broad scope so it was interesting to just hear about the history and how plants have been involved. I thought the discussion on opium was particularly interesting because I had just done lectures for pain management in the class previously mentioned.

Finally, I thought it was interesting to hear from Dr. Kinghorn about different places to visit while we are abroad that related to his topic. It was also good to hear from someone who grew up in the country we are going to visit and his ideas on their current political and social environment.

Dr. Kinghorn’s presentation was very interesting as he talked about the paradigm shifts to drug therapy. His passion for botany was so deep and I loved learning about the various compounds that have been discovered to impact medicine. I had no idea that roughly ¾ of world’s population rely on plants as a major resource in traditional medicine! It makes me wonder about the process to the discovery of the uses of certain plants, and how people figured out if certain plants were poisonous or beneficial. I thought it was really interesting to learn about the study of digitoxin, because that had a huge impact on drugs later affecting the human cardiovascular system. Dr. Kinghorn has traveled a lot throughout his career and visited some incredible places, and I was happy to hear all of his stories and recommendations in London!

It was very helpful to have someone who’s home was Britain come and tell us some of the details about it. Even if things were as simple as the difference between chips and crisps, it was helpful to hear these things that could trip people up. I was also interesting to learn where the name Great Britain came from. Regarding his talk, it is very interest and intriguing how many medicinal products nature creates. Plants can manufacture these compounds so much easier than humans, without even knowing what they can do outside of their ecosystem. It was interesting to hear a professors opinion on the growth of medical marijuana in the future, and how he thinks it is inevitable and the differences between our country and other countries opinions on the matter.

Dr. Kinghorn’s lecture was very informative and exciting. He spoke on Drug Therapy from Medicinal Plants focused on England and France. He was very knowledgeable and mentioned several famous French and English scientists. He also talked about the immense role that drugs play in our lives. One of the most interesting parts of the talk, in my opinion, was when he spoke on opium. I enjoyed hearing about how opium changed over time from the crude drug from the plant, to a tincture of opium, then to morphine, and lastly to heroin. He told us heroin was supposed to be a hero drug but it soon proved to be too addicting. Also, he spoke on England telling us what exactly the difference were between the UK, Great Britain, and England. At the end of his talk he mentioned a few places to visit but I was very interested in Kew Gardens and may go there if the opportunity is available. 

This presentation was pretty unique to me because I believe it was the only one so far that discussed plants and medicine in depth. I found it very interesting that 3/4 of the world’s population rely on plants as a resource of medicine. Also, more than 200,000 known compounds are found in vascular plants. I found it interesting to learn about the organic structures of plants as well and how they are used to make certain drugs. I also liked the fact that are speaker was able to travel the world and do what he loves for a living because that is something that I would love to do in the future.

I liked how Dr. Kinghorn gave us some background on the history of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as a brief explanation as to what exactly Brexit was. I also found his lecture on medicinal use of plants very interesting. Especially with the truth bean, which was used as a test to see if the someone was guilty or innocent. We’ve come a very long way in understanding the chemicals behind these various plants, and it is for famous botanists who have started integrating these plants into a serious aspect of scientific research that we know of today. I also appreciated how Dr. Kingshorn gave us ideas of what to do in London and Paris, such as visiting botanical gardens and how to use the Tube.

I found Dr. Kinghorn’s presentation very interesting. I like how he gave us background on the different flags and current events first. I had no idea about Brexit and think it’s interesting since it’s happening so close to when we go. I also enjoyed how he spoke about the different plants how they were even sold in their pharmacies. My favorite drug he mentioned was probably the ordeal bean that was used as a truth drug. I thought it was especially cool because it could originally kill people if they were on drugs, but is still used for glaucoma today. Those two uses for the drug seem completely different but show the versatility drugs can have.

I really enjoyed this lecture. I find in a lot of classes I take rooted in science discuss medicine, but rarely mention the origin of the medicine or the plants and ingredients that make up the drug. I was very interested in hearing more about the relationship between plants and medicine because I did not know the extent at which plants are used for medicine. I found when we focused on the different specifics medicine the most fascinating portion of the lecture. I did not know the specifics of opium and all of the different forms it can be found in and the different causative effects. Dr. Kinghorn mentioned the Physostigma veneosum, or Ordeal bean or “truth drug”. This drug was used to decide a verdict of guilty or not guilty based on whether the person being accused died or not. This is honestly a huge representation of paradigm shift and how we look and understand drugs is vastly different. Lastly, Dr. Kinghorn had an interesting take on marijuana. I always hear the vague term “medical marijuana” but never know the extent they are used for, so I liked how Dr. Kinghorn went into the specifics of Dronabinol, Epidiolex, and Sativex.

Also throughout the class, he did a great job relating this material back to our trip specifically by focusing on places we could potentially visit or see in England and London. He mentioned gardens that are famous to visit and explore. I liked the end of the talk where he discussed the actual trip with the class and gave us some inside knowledge of great places to go and eat. I appreciated that because I always want to hear from someone who has been there or lived there and what the best thing to do is. I was also thinking of going to Oxford or Cambridge on our day off in England, so I was glad to hear he recommended the two!

I had a wonderful time learning about the pharmaceutical side of science in Europe with Dr. Kinghorn. It was truly fascinating to learn about the way botany prospered and led to so many outstanding scientific advances. Along with this, Dr. Kinghorn gave a general history of the French and British, including their land and flags. He discussed the advancements of research and botany that led to plants being a great benefit to health. Learning about the amount of plants used for medicine is interesting because things we may have seen randomly growing before may be a possible help to someone who is in pain or needs a solution to a medical issue.

Dr. Kinghorn mentioned botanists from both France and Britain that were able to create a relationship between humankind and the vegetation that surrounded them. He also talked about famous gardens found in both Paris and France that are used to collect samples to test for botany and research on medicinal medicine.

I enjoyed the official part of the talk, but also the small talk about the trip. I am thinking about a trip to see Oxford and exploring that area. I think being on the campus area will be an experience that I would enjoy. It was nice to hear about all of the things that Dr. Kinghorn suggests, and think about implicating them into the trip!