As winter approaches, this is a perfect time to take stock and re-assess your home veggie garden. Since we are based in southern California, we often apply shade cloth above our raised garden beds. This comes off in the winter. The sun is now moving across the skyline at a lower angle and we need [...]
Within the world of medicinal plants, we find a lingering debate between isolated compounds vs. whole plant extracts. Which approach delivers more health benefits? What are the strengths and weakness of each approach? We know plants contain chemicals that engage our bodies in meaningful ways. This engagement produces a shift in our cellular biology and [...]
KCET has put out a great video about eating native foods. This is the PBS channel associated with Los Angeles. I met the film crew for this TV series. They interviewed me about plants and plant science. But to be honest, I have no idea if they ended up using my clips in their [...]
Hello EthnoBotany fans, I wanted to share a great resource for anyone interested in California ethnobotany. "Tending Nature" is a new video series that is free to watch online on the KCET website. For those that don't know (myself included), KCET is a channel of the Public Media Group of Southern California, formed by the 2018 [...]
June 2017 research update: Bio-active compounds in southern California medicinal plants This project serves as a capstone senior project for Grant Johnson, a University of San Diego undergraduate student. The project is overseen by Dr. Kevin Curran, a member of the USD Biology Department. Summary of project: Plants used [...]
Mongabay is an outstanding environmental website. They do an excellent job of communicating where things stand with the natural world. They expose those that are destroying fragile wildlife and they celebrate the beauty of the wilderness that remains. The EthnoHerbalist is really proud to contribute this article about the fragile [...]