ECoG | Overview Heading link
The Ethnobotany Collaborative Group (ECoG), within the Pharmacognosy Institute, is an integral part of pharmaceutical research and education at the UIC College of Pharmacy. The Pharmacognosy Institute is an IBHE-endorsed entity within the UIC College of Pharmacy (COP) that is dedicated to all aspects of pharmacognosy research, collaboration, and global networking.
UIC has a rich history ethnobotany field research, along with a variety of built-in resources, including the Dorothy Bradley Atkins Medicinal Plant Garden, the Heritage Garden, 50,000+ medicinal plant samples at the Pharmacognosy Field Station from 50+ years of pharmacognosy fieldwork, and many state-of-the-art research laboratories across campus that study the interactions between plants, humans, and well-being. UIC’s Pharmacognosy Graduate Program has long attracted students interested in medical ethnobotany with research projects around the globe, including locally in the Chicago area.
ECoG | General Profile & Information Heading link
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Mission
The ECoG group seeks to understand better the uses of plants for medical conditions in different cultures and the diversity of plants used in medical practice in the past, today, and future. Thereby, the group studies the interconnections between people and plants and the value of traditional knowledge systems.
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Research
View some of the past and ongoing research conducted by members of the group.
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Education
The ECoG group offers an HON 201 seminar series through the UIC Honors College, entitled “Plant Medicine from Rainforest to Metropolis – A Legacy for the Future”.
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Outreach
The ECoG community task force uses medical ethnobotany to connect with greater Chicago area communities.
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Events & Activities
The ECoG group organizes events such as the Pharmacognosy Roundtable and other activities open to the community announced on the Events Pages of the Pharmacognosy Institute
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Collaborative Entities
ECoG Activities Heading link
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Plants for Human Health | 3-Day Seminar & Open Discussion
NLM Digital CollectionsHippocrates of Kos (5th/4th century BCE), the Father of MedicineThis free 3-Day Seminar will investigate the old Hippocratic saying “First do no harm” (Primum non nuocere) through three historical presentations by Prof. Alain Touwaide and Prof. Geoffrey Cordell. They will examine three key moments of this long history:
- the role of food as preventative medicine in Hippocratic times (5th/4th century BCE);
- the use of anesthetics. psychotropics as well as venoms and poisons as instruments to understand remedies from Antiquity to the Middle Ages and later with Paracelsus (1493-1541);
- and the alkaloids in the 20th century, highlighting their paradoxical history.
More information and details here.