Club Calendar

Plants have been used for their healing properties for thousands of years. Evidence of their use by physicians, apothecaries, healers, wise-women, households, nurses, surgeons and quacks can be found in documents spanning from Ancient Egypt papyri, through herbals and recipe-books, to modern-day scientific reports. Some of the healing plants used have fallen into obscurity while others continue to influence both traditional and conventional medicine even today. Whilst less well known than Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea – Digoxin) and Poppy (Papaver somniferum – Morphine), the beautiful St John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum), can be used to demonstrate the evolution of plant-based medicine and the balance of tradition with science.

This talk traces the history of plant medicines from ancient traditions to modern science, using St John’s Wort as a case study to explore how remedies evolved over time and influenced medical practice, research, and the development of modern therapeutics.

Biography: Colonel Ellie Williams MSc, MA, DHMSA, DipHerb FRPharmS
Ellie Williams is a registered pharmacist whose early interest in plant medicine was sparked during her university pharmacognosy lectures; this developed further through her dissertation on the medicinal properties of Gingko biloba. It continued to grow during the seven years she worked as a clinical pharmacist in NHS hospitals where, as part of her day to day duties she dispensed and provided advice on many medicines derived from plants.