FALL
2007 HONORS COURSES
HONR 229K Ethnobotany and Medicinal
Plants
Tuesday/Thursday 3:30-4:45 p.m.
Dr. Steven Casper, Lecturer in University Honors
This course is principally a science course as ethnobotany
is a recognized scientific discipline. Ethnobotany is a cross-field
discipline that includes many other scientific disciplines, including
chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, neurobiology, systematics, and
ecology. The field is also interdisciplinary in containing elements
of anthropology, sociology, biotechnology, economics, law, and politics.
At its core is the fact that plants are a part of everyday life; physically
present in our diet, in materials we use, and as topics of political
and ethical discussions. This course explores these aspects and other
facets of ethnobotany and the study of plants. Whether prospecting for
new medicinal compounds, surveying plants used for foods, or plants
that are basis materials for production of a product, the key element
of ethnobotany is the connection of plants and the people who use them.
The course is structured in such a way to parallel ethnobotanical
investigation of medicinal plants. First, one studies the geographical
area and people who live there. This involves aspects of anthropology.
This is a fundamental point that distinguishes ethnobotany from just
botany. Students read about quantitative and statistical studies on
how plants are used now and on plant remains to reconstruct how they
were used by ancient cultures. Studying the plants with an emphasis
on their medicinal qualities is based in botany. The students receive
a background in botanical method, taxonomy and systematics with specific
examples of plant taxa and their interrelation. Analyzing the plants
for functional compounds is the basis of medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy.
At the beginning of these series of lectures, the students are introduced
to a few key organic chemical classes (indoles, alkaloids, glycosides,
saponins…) and biosynthetic pathways commonly employed by plants (isoprenoid,
monoterpene, phytohormone…). The main text for this portion of the class
is “Medical Botany: Plants affecting human health” by Walter Lewis and
Memory Elvin-Lewis. Various journal articles used as reference material
for this text are used. Testing the compounds in tissue culture or in
vivo involves cell biology. We go over experimental data and discuss
its significance with relation to cultural uses or outcomes based on
anecdotal information. Topics of physiology are discussed in relation
to mode of activity of the plant compounds. We cover major system/organ
classes such as the autonomic nervous system and how various compounds
affect it or neurophysiology when we discuss plant compounds that are
similar to human neurotransmitters. Even the ecological studies come
from refereed scientific journals and we examine the statistical significance
of the results. Discussions include relevant scientific articles which
are either handed out or presented in class when the articles are too
long or contain much more information beyond the salient points pertaining
to the class topic.
With regard to the writing assignment, the students
are instructed to choose a topic of interest to them that has been presented
in class and elaborate on the details. The topic must be about the involvement
of a plant or group of plants. The papers are supposed to be about ten
pages, 1.5 spacing of writing, not including title or reference pages.
They are also instructed to use primary sources of information and cite
the references appropriately in the text. Depending on the topic, a
student may choose to do a review of current research on a particular
plant that has potential for use as a new drug, or choose a particular
traditional healing system and discuss the various plants used medicinally,
their physiological effect, and any scientific validation of efficacy
if it exists. Even when students choose a topic like cosmetic uses of
plants, they include chemistry and physiology when discussing mode of
action.
CORE: Life Science (LS)
