Before big pharmaceutical companies, small town pharmacists made medicines from scratch using basic practices like drying, grinding and boiling to draw the healing properties from various types of plants and trees. The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy believes in the importance of knowing and understanding the history of pharmacy and the origins of medicine.
As a bridge between the past and future, the first School of Pharmacy class planted a medicinal garden in the spring of 2006. Medicinal gardens, also known as herb gardens or “gardens of simples,” can be traced back as far as the middle ages and primarily feature plants used for treating the symptoms of a variety of common ailments.
The 450 square-foot garden located near the School of Pharmacy serves as both an aesthetically pleasing addition to the University Park landscape and a teaching opportunity for the PharmD students. View the medicinal garden video.
“It’s important to remind students that plants carry out complex syntheses that create potentially helpful drug molecules,” said Dr. Mike Crider, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences chair and associate dean of research. “Those processes can be very difficult to duplicate in a lab. The medicinal garden creates an opportunity for students to understand this first-hand.”
Some of the plants in the School of Pharmacy medicinal garden include:
- St. John’s Wort – A shrubby perennial plant with bright yellow flowers used to treat mild to moderate depression and anxiety.
- Willow bark (willow tree) – A tree whose bark is used to treat pain and fever due to its anti-inflammatory properties.
- Vinca – A small plant known for its light pink flowers from which up to 86 chemical compounds are extracted and used in chemotherapy to treat several types of cancer.
- Horehound – An herbaceous perennial plant, somewhat resembling mint, known to aid digestion and sooth sore throats.
The medicinal garden is cared for by volunteers from the Edwardsville Garden Club. Students, faculty and community members are encouraged to volunteer their time or make a donation to the garden.