Utilizing herbaria in medical botany curricula

The importance of plant-based medicines (phytomedicines) is becoming increasingly recognized by scientists, industry, and consumers. Post-secondary institutions, particularly those with strong programs in medicine or pharmacology, are adding or strengthening components of their curricula related to medical botany. Herbaria are uniquely suited to address the instructional needs of medical botany courses (or courses with a medical botany component), but are typically underutilized. Three lesson modules are presented here to demonstrate how herbaria may be used in medical botany curricula, emphasizing the importance of herbarium information in both research and societal contexts. Suggestions are given for how these modules may be incorporated into both botany- and medicine-based courses.