Medicinal Plants of Laos

Professor Soejarto

Djaja D. Soejarto is Professor Emeritus at UIC, College of Pharmacy and Adjunct Curator in Science and Education, The Field Museum. He earned his Ph.D. degree (Biology/Botany) in 1969 from Harvard University. He served as Fellow of the Latin American Teaching Fellowships, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, in a mission assignment to the Department of Biology, University of Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia (1969-1972). In 1969, as a LATF Fellow, he founded the Herbarium of the University of Antioquia (HUA; http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/ih/herbarium-details/?irn=126256). He joined the Department of Biology, first as an Assistant Professor, then Associate Professor in Biology (1972-1976). He served as a postdoctoral Fellow in Ethnopharmacology at Harvard University (1972-1973) under the mentorship of Professor Richard Evans Schultes. After serving as a Consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, Switzerland (1976-1978), he became an Adjunct Associate Professor (1979-1983) in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the College of Pharmacy, UIC, an Associate Professor (1983-1989), then a Full Professor (1989-2015). From 1979 to 2020, he was involved in research on plants and medicinal plants under a multidisciplinary setting at UIC, travelling extensively to many countries to collect plants as part of his collaborative research. He was the Principal Investigator of an NCI contract on Plant Exploration and Collection with UIC (1986-2004) and was the Principal Investigator of a multinational, multidisciplinary program called the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) Program of the Fogarty International Center, NIH (1998-2010). The research focus of this ICBG group was drug discovery, biodiversity conservation, and economic development in Vietnam and Laos. Under grants from the CCF (2013-2014; 2019-2023) he carried out research on medicinal plants of Laos and on medicinal plant conservation. He is the author and co-author of more than 200 peer reviewed papers with a focus on plant taxonomy, medicinal plant studies, plant-derived sweetening agents, drug discovery from plants, and conservation of medicinal plants; 22 book chapters; and 26 symposium proceedings. Dr. Soejarto is also an Adjunct Curator in Science and Education at the Field Museum of Natural History.

Dr. Sydara

Kongmany Sydara is Former Director General of the Institute of Traditional Medicine (ITM) and Invited Lecturer (since 2006) at the University of Health Sciences, Vientiane. From 2014 to 2020 he served as the Director General of the ITM, Ministry of Health, Vientiane, Lao PDR. Before that, he served as the Deputy Director of the Traditional Medicine Research Center (TMRC), Ministry of Health, Vientiane, Laos, from 1991 to 2014. He completed his Bachelor of Science degree and his Master of Science degree in Biochemical Engineering at the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary. Aside from administrative duties, he has been active in carrying out research on medicinal plants since 1984. As part of the advancement of his work and scientific research, he has also received additional training opportunities in the Republic of Korea, Hungary, Japan, and the United States. Professor Sydara is the author and co-author of many books and peer-reviewed papers focusing on the uses and conservation of medicinal plants of Laos, in both English and Lao languages.

Dr. Elkington

Bethany G. Elkington is a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UIC, and a biology instructor at City Colleges of Chicago - Malcolm X College, Chicago, Illinois, USA. She has been studying medicinal plants of Laos since 2005. She earned her Ph.D. degree in Pharmacognosy-Medical Ethnobotany from UIC in 2013, with her dissertation titled "Herbal Treatments for Tuberculosis in Laos: Ethnobotany and Pharmacognosy Studies." She was a Fulbright Fellow in Laos (2008-2009), and an NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) grantee (2010 - 2013). She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA. She is the author and co-author of more than 20 peer-reviewed papers, books and book chapters, and plant-identification field guides on medicinal plants of Southeast Asia and West Africa. Dr. Elkington has been a scientific affiliate of the Field Museum of Natural History as a student and professional researcher since 2005.