By: C. Benjamin Naman, PhD, SDBG Director of Medicinal Plants Research

As I write and reflect on the last three full years of Medicinal Plants Research at San Diego Botanic Garden (SDBG), I want to lead with gratitude. Dr. Ari Novy, President and CEO of SDBG, told me that he had long envisioned botanic gardens playing a more central role in modern biomedical research through the science and conservation of medicinal plants. That vision became a reality here in early 2022 with the launch of our Medicinal Plants Research program. Made possible by funding from The Conrad Prebys Foundation, Martin & Carol Dickinson, and other private donors, the project – officially titled the “Creation of a National Medicinal Plants Collection and Research Consortium to Catalyze Drug Discovery in San Diego and Beyond”- has grown into a collaborative effort to develop a new way of doing research with cross-sector and multicultural participation that achieves new and improved outcomes. We are so thankful to many local leaders from academia, industry, and nonprofits, along with tribal governments and other community partners for coming together with us to create something that unifies traditional knowledge with modern science and invigorates local collaborations with the goal of preserving and improving health and wellness for people, plants, and the planet.

I joined the Garden in 2022 after learning about the newly created role to lead this exciting and innovative program. To come here, I left behind two positions that I had held simultaneously: an academic associate professorship with assistant department chair administrative responsibility, and executive management of a small biotech start-up company. Having first-hand experience in both academia and industry helped me to work with the Garden’s leadership team to lay out the plan for what we feel has become a very successful new frontier program for the science and conservation of medicinal plants. We quickly formed an interdepartmental project team to collaboratively expand our medicinal plants living collection, develop new medicinal plant areas and educational programming at the Garden, form a mixed mode advisory and participatory research consortium, and conduct genetic and metabolic phytochemical discovery research with medicinal plants.

The Garden has been honored to work with Indigenous partners from Jamul Indian Village of California, which is a Sovereign Kumeyaay Nation, from the outset of this project, and indeed for more than 20 years before it with various other shared activities. Another longtime Indigenous partner of the Garden who was with us from the start was Richard Bugbee, a local elder and instructor of ethnobotany and ethnoecology at Kumeyaay Community College. Entering these relationships as a representative of the Garden and growing them to include several other Native American Nations has been a great experience for me and our team in terms of learning different cultural ways of being, knowing, and working for the good of the community. It has been my privilege and joy to lead this program for the last three years from its early sprouting to what it is today and is envisioned to be for years to come.

 

For many, the Garden is a peaceful reprieve from a stressful world – a gateway into 37 acres of beautiful nature without having to leave the city. We love that, and we remain committed to providing award-winning experiences for our visitors while also advancing botanical education and research. With the development of our Medicinal Plants Project, our team has contributed by developing a Healing Herb Bed in The Hamilton Children’s Garden; a Native California Herbal Garden; and new Medicinal Garden adjacent to the Native Plants & Native People trail that was developed with the Jamul Indian Village of California, and Richard Bugbee, about 25 years ago. Each of these gardens has engaging new educational and interpretive signage to spark curiosity. We also launched a smartphone app with a GPS-tagged self-guided Medicinal Plants Tour (currently available in English and Spanish, which has already been used by thousands of visitors) to supplement the classes, docent guided tours, special events, and presentations that are available at the Garden. These initiatives have helped us gain national and international recognition for our Medicinal Plant collection, research, and education.

 

The number of medicinal plants in our living collection now surpasses 2,300 taxa, a major jump from less than 500 just three years ago. These plants fall into three main categories. Threatened, rare, and endangered species make up the first group for conservation efforts, which are active on site here at the Garden and offsite at community gardens, restoration sites, and other botanic gardens. Medicinal plants grown for educational and experiential purposes are in the second category to increase visitor awareness, especially for the many medicinal plants that have been used to create modern “Western” medicines. The third group consists of the many plants being studied by our team and our research partners for horticultural propagation, genetic, and phytochemical properties that will enable potential medicinal uses and development according to sustainability principles.

The scope and impact of projects in the department of Science and Conservation at SDBG have become truly incredible when one considers that this department was founded in late 2021, only about six months before our Medicinal Plants Research began. Even just within the medicinal plants team, we now work with about a dozen universities, near and far; half a dozen for-profit companies; a handful of non-profit companies; and several tribal government agencies or Indigenous-led organizations. Many of these partners are active members of the SDBG Medicinal Plants Research Consortium. The consortium started out as an advisory group for the development of our plant collection and other programs, with members sharing their advice and interests to help guide us. Soon after, many members became participatory partners in various aspects of our program. Now, the group feels more like a community of practitioners in biomedical drug discovery and development, plant science, traditional medicine, integrative health, and public education. We envision a consortium that brings together all the expertise needed to transition a medicinal plant from its natural environment into horticulture, conduct in-depth plant science, and integrate it into the drug discovery, medical technology, and pharmaceutical development pipeline that exists so strongly right here in San Diego. Over time, I hope we will collectively contribute to the creation of new medicines that strengthen our society.

Since our start in 2022 with The Conrad Prebys Foundation, Martin & Carol Dickinson, and other private donors, our Medicinal Plant Research efforts have grown tremendously with support from various other local, national, and federal funding partners including more private donors, The Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Foundation, the American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA ARS); and the US Forest Service (USFS). Our projects focus on all three key aspects of the Garden’s mission statement: “We garden to create, share and apply plant wisdom in our world.” For example, select groups of related plants in our living medicinal plants collection are the focus of grant applications to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and ongoing studies in partnership with leading academic scientists in world-class research universities. The Garden is small compared to any university, yet we are now in the second year of renting biochemical laboratory space from local biotechnology incubators, and we look forward to significantly increasing our capacity in the future. We’re grateful to have recently had private donors gift us an array of laboratory instruments that will help take our research pace, productivity, and technical training of young scientists to new levels. We continue to learn how we can lead from our unique position, collaborate with local and distant organizations, and serve the community in a variety of ways. 

 

 

The technical science of our Medicinal Plant Research is centered around a few areas that SDBG as a botanic garden is particularly well suited to conduct with our living plant collection. These especially include germination and propagation methods for hard to grow plants and horticultural modulation for evaluating impacts on plant genetic and phytochemical responses to external stimuli such as drought, shade, and physical wounding. Among the plants we’re studying in this way, the native medicinal plants broadly called yerba santa (genus Eriodictyon) stand out as particularly important and impactful. We also evaluate plant part differentiation since we can grow the plants to evaluate them in the garden without creating any risk to wild environmental populations, and observe seasonal or age-based variations since the plants stay on location and can be individually monitored across environmental and growth or developmental factors. In each of these areas, we have preliminary or advanced research results that we intend to publish and continue sharing with a community of practitioners that can put it to use on the particular plants that we study, or by replicating our approaches with different plants of interest to them. Some of our collaborative research includes the ecogeography of important native medicinal plants, such as the yerba santas, in which we can predict the different regions where these plants could grow under current environmental conditions or in various different proposed future conditions. This allows us to better inform where the plants can be found or planted today, and possibly identify promising areas stable for long-term conservation or at-risk places for urgent conservation efforts. Altogether we are connecting the inherent importance of biodiversity with the useful applications it has in benefiting humanity through development according to sustainability principles

While we do all this work across many disciplines, we maintain our commitment to mentorship and the training of young professionals in our community. Since the start of the program, we have expanded the Medicinal Plants Research team to include a group of diversely talented individuals including Medicinal Plants Nursery Technician Emma Suster, Medicinal Plants Research Technician Alli Adams, Agriculture Genomics Research Specialist Audrey Dickinson, Rare Plant Specialist Monica Bustamante, and Tribal Climate Resilience Specialist Kekoa Cantwell. SDBG is one of four botanic gardens nationwide participating collaboratively in the Research and Mentoring for Postbaccalaureates in Biological Sciences (RaMP) program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). We have also hosted visiting PhD students from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and The University of Texas at Arlington, as well as undergraduate students from California State University San Marcos who gained paid internship experience and research class credit. Additionally, we regularly engage with individuals seeking sponsored or volunteer research stays at SDBG for mentorship and workforce development opportunities. We plan to continue expanding our mentorship and training program so that we can help to attract talented young people to visit, move to, or stay in San Diego while they explore this unique intersection of the biomedical and environmental workforce sectors.

 

 

One of our most exciting recent achievements was co-hosting a major “Gathering of Tribes and Conservation Organizations” in partnership with Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Flower Hill Institute, the Pala Band of Mission Indians, the Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association, and the United States Botanic Garden. Held over two days in February 2025, this event brought together around 100 participants from about 25 Native American Nations, seven Indigenous-led organizations, and 25 conservation groups, academic institutions, and government agencies. We had conversations centered on different aspects of the science and conservation of plants of cultural significance, including those used for ceremonial, edible, medicinal, and other traditional purposes. We discussed successful examples, opportunities, and challenges of Native American Tribes and non-indigenous partner organizations working together. One of the key takeaways that I am comfortable sharing at this early juncture is that I now view San Diego as more than a hotspot of biodiversity with more varieties of living organisms than any other county of the United States, but also as a biocultural hotspot county with the highest number of Sovereign Federally-Recognized (and some Non-Federally Recognized) Native American Tribes that each have unique deep, meaningful, and ancient relationships with the Nature we are all part of here. The recent gathering created many new connections and opportunities for increased collaboration in our region that we are excited to participate in, and it may come to serve as an emerging model for other regions to adapt and attempt. 

 

 

 

Looking ahead, you can expect to see and hear more from our Medicinal Plants Research team here the Garden, out in the community, further afield, and online via published work. I am so optimistic that all of these things we’re doing together have meaningful benefits for our communities, ultimately making a better future possible for the biocultural hotspot that we all call home!

 

Learn More About:

Science and Conservation Projects at SDBG

SDBG App and Self-Guided Medicinal Plants Tour

February 2024 Medicinal Plants Research Symposium

Community Tree Planting with Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians