Medicinal Plants of Turkey

Professor Ufuk Koca-Caliskan

Professor Ufuk Koca-Caliskan received her diploma from Gazi University, Faculty of Pharmacy in Turkey. She has a Master degree in Biochemistry (Washington State University, USA); PhD degree in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology (University of Florida, USA). She now holds the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical Botany, at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Gazi University. She is an expert in Phytotherapy and Aromatherapy and a long interest in plants and their healing properties, collecting folk medicine recepies at an early age from healers.

Ufuk studied the production and enhancing anticancer compound podophyllotoxin derivatives in linum flavum and L. usitatissimum callus and suspension cultures, followed by a project dealing with the decreasing bitter taste of grapefruit via manipulation of the flavonoid pathway by means of gene transfer during her PhD at the University of Florida. After her PhD, she returned to the Gazi University, Faculty of Pharmacy and established a plant tissue culture laboratory She also served as an Administrator at her University as a vice dean and dean of the Graduate School of Health Sciences, where she established nonthesis programs in Nursing and Phytotherapy, and worked on to increase the success and the quality of the education in Health Sciences. She also served as the ERASMUS constitutional coordinator for 4 years at the University.

Ufuk serving as an editorial or review board member on various international and national journals published more than 60 papers, including 15 book chapters.