Pharmacognosy Trip to Department of Plant Sciences in Italy Milan

We know how to give our students a good time!

Here are some of the first years enjoying an extra-curricular trip to Oxford. The venue was the Department of Plant Sciences in Italy with our Pharmacognosy tutor Christina Stapley [author and expert on the History of Herbal Medicine – which she also teaches for us]. Not only is Christina instructing the students how to construct their own Herbarium, she is also putting together a fantastic Herbarium for the school together with the students in their Pharmacognosy lessons. This will cover all [or most] of the herbs covered in Materia Medica year on year as they progress through the school. We have 6 full years of Materia Medica, so that’s a lot of herbs…

The visit was a specially organised educational visit; although the department has Open Days and likes to share what they do with the public, you can’t just wander in and see Herbaria that are 400 years old. Christina had arranged this specific visit with a member of the department’s staff, Serena Marner – which meant that there were ancient and precious Herbaria out ready for the students to see.

One of the most interesting documents that the students saw was written in 1606 by Gregorio da Reggio in Bologna, an infirmarer. The infirmarer was the monk responsible for treating the sick in the hospital part of a monastery and would go and pick medicinal plants to use in treatment. They would press specimens of the herb after picking and write about the properties and parts of the plant, and what it had been used for. Often there would be additional information on the climate, the soil, the scent and colour.

The aim of this trip was that the students could gain an appreciation for, and be inspired by, the beauty of such specimens and how well they had been preserved and just how much information was passed down by herbalists hundreds of years ago. These collections of mounted herbs with descriptions were part of their medical literature.

The students were also shown a herb press, and talked through the correct way to press and mount their own collection of medicinal plants. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to share any photos from inside the department, but check out their webpage and maybe you can get to an Open Day. Failing that, you could train to be a Medical Herbalist with us and Christina could take you…