ture at Botanic Garden
Ancient Wisdom and Modern Medicine:
Plants, People, Cultures, and Conservation

By
Michael J. Balick, Ph.D.

Saturday, April 11, 2009
Botanic Garden Library
4:00 p.m.
$7 members and students with ID/ $10 non-members
1212 Mission Canyon Rd, Santa Barbara
www.sbbg.org

  The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is pleased to welcome Dr. Michael J. Balick for an evening of plants, people, cultures, and conservation.  This lecture discusses the study of plants used in traditional healing by indigenous cultures.
 
Concerned that ancient knowledge of the medicinal qualities of plants has "devolved", or disappeared with the passing of practitioners,  Dr. Balick, in conjunction with the Belize Ethnobotany Project, works with traditional healers and other local experts in forest utilization working to collect, identify, and evaluate thousands of plant specimens gathered from tropical ecosystems.  In addition to Central America, work is also being conducted on Micronesia and in the Dominican community in New York City to capture this knowledge and teach it to the next generation.
 
Traditional knowledge of medicinal plants can be of great value in addressing contemporary issues in drug development, public health, and conservation. "What we now do is add the modern tools of science to this old discipline," said Balick.  "Also, we educate. We try to help urban peoples see how much we all depend on plants. Plants are the bottom line in life. They support all of life."  Seeking to fulfill this potential, scientists find themselves in a race against time, with both tropical forests being destroyed and indigenous knowledge about the uses of the plants and their environment rapidly being lost.

For more information, contact (805) 682-4726, or www.sbbg.org
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