Dedicated to Developing Responsible Herbal Practice

Established in 2002 by Susan Wynn, DVM, CVA, CVCH, AHG, DACVN

 

VBMA ANNUAL HERBWALK

 

The 2018 VBMA Annual Herbwalk took place on Friday, October 3rd at 4 PM in conjunction with the AHVMA Annual Conference at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee, FL. This year, our walk was led by Dr. Christopher Hobbs and was sponsored by the ACVBM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VBMA ANNUAL MEETING

 

The 2018 VBMA Annual Meeting was held during the AHVMA Annual Conference in Kissimmee, FL on October 6th, 2018 at 6pm in room Sanibel 1. Scholarship winners were announced, details will be posted on our site soon.

 

ABOUT DR. CHRISTOPHER HOBBS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Hobbs is a fourth-generation, internationally renowned herbalist, licensed acupuncturist, author, clinician, botanist, mycologist, and research scientist with over 35 years of experience with herbal medicine. Christopher has a doctorate from UC Berkeley in phylogenetics, evolutionary biology and phytochemistry. He is also a founding member of the American Herbalists Guild. Christopher's Living Herbs podcasts are available for you to listen to HERE.

 

From Christopher's website:

My current areas of interest center around the practice of clinical herbalism, teaching herbal medicine, collecting information and books on all aspects of herbalism, history of medicine and pharmacy, and health education, especially as it relates to plants including the pharmacology of foods and herbal medicines).

 

More specifically, I have collected over 5000 books over the last 10 years relating to herbal medicine and the history of medicine. Notable are extensive collections in ethnobotany, early American materia medica and medical botany, botany, history of ancient medicine (including a number of 16th and 17th century herbals), European phytotherapy (including Hagers Handbuch) and nearly complete runs of the journals Planta Medica, Herba Hunganca, Herba Polonica, Fitoterapia, The Eclectic Medical Journal, American Journal of Pharmacy (from the early 1800s), Phytotberapy Research and a number of others. We are in the process of publishing an annotated list of these books and journals. I also do a considerable amount of on-line searching and am in the process of putting together an extensive database from nearly 8 years of searching. Eight years of collecting the literature from libraries all over the U.S. and Europe has resulted in 6 filing cabinets full of scientific papers on ethnobotany and phytomedicine.

 

I write numerous articles for current health, herbal and scientific publications and enjoy translating scientific and traditional literature into a user-friendly format that is accessible to the interested lay person and medical practitioner. For instance, on Health World you can find articles I’ve written for Natural Health, Let’s Live, HerbalGram, and Pharmacy In History. I serve as a member of the advisory board of Let’s Live Magazine, one of the country’s oldest and most respected health publications, as well as Herbs for Health, and HerbalGram. I am a contributing editor to HerbalGram. Besides these publications I have written for Vegetarian Times, Business of Herbs!, Fine Gardening, American Herb Association NewsLetter!, Herbs!, Mothering Magazine, and a number of others.

 

I also have a small press, Botanica Press, which prints books about health and herbs, for which I have also written 14 books, the most recent which is The Ginsengs. I am also in the process of writing 3 further books on herbs, including a women’s herbal, saw palmetto, garlic, and a complete modern herbal. With Steven Foster, I am working on the Peterson’s Field Guide to the Medicinal Plants of the Western United States.

 

As a consultant to the herb industry, I have formulated well-known national herb products for Nature’s Way, Yerba Prima and Rainbow Light, among others. In the last several years I have developed a close working relationship with Rainbow Light as a consultant and formulator. I have a keen interest in participating in the awakening of awareness of the importance of quality and correct botanical identity in the herb industry. To this end, I have reviewed the quality of herbs in a number of large herb companies, and currently serve as a member of the standards committee of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) since 1988. Also I have served as vice president of AHPA, and as a member of the board of trustees for 7 years.

 

I am currently practicing clinical herbalism as a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist in Santa Cruz, California. With Michael Tierra, we founded the American School of Herbalism in 1990, where we offer a variety of training programs in western and Chinese herbal medicine.