Ethnopharmacology is a transdisciplinary field of research which remains underutilized in drug discovery and development despite historically relevant examples of traditional uses that provided a wealth of lead structures.
This Research Topic aims to look at what current issues are faced by principal investigators, lab managers, student supervisors/medical professionals/teachers/students/the general population who educate and train within the field.
In this Research Topic, we welcome manuscripts that help to address some of the
following important questions:
A. What are the challenges in the training that teachers, lecturers, laboratory managers face when teaching? In both laboratory and field work?
B. How can we best tackle these challenges? And how will their understanding help us move forward in research?
C. What educational approaches (e.g. curricula, courses, resources such as professional societies and organizations) are available to better prepare professionals to work in the field of ethnopharmacology?
D. How can we identify credible experimental models?
E. What are the teaching tools and strategies in the identification of source material, extraction, isolation and collection of samples: teaching through case studies, project-based learning, using Classroom-Based Undergraduate Research.
Here, we discuss methods and approaches to educate and train people of all ages and backgrounds in how to think and practice in this area. This Topic will act as a resource for principal investigators, lab managers, supervisors, educators, researchers, medical professions, teachers (anyone else you would like to target) and the wider community within the field for education and training.
We welcome contributions in the form of original research, review, mini review, case report, hypothesis and theory, perspective, and experimental studies that cover, but are not limited to, the following themes:
1. Identifying and utilizing credible experimental models.
2. Teachings in Laboratory and Field work.
3. Teachings in compliance with all international ethical standards and related legal issues pertaining to the ownership of indigenous knowledge, intellectual property, regulation of organisms, biopiracy, and genetic resources.
4. Contribution of Ethnopharmacology to Western Medicine.
5. As a transdisciplinary field of research, there is both the need for training in inter-/transdisciplinary approaches and discussion of the challenges of dealing with the uncertainties arising from the need to step into one area one has no formal training in.
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in the mission statement. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
Please note that all research dealing with plant extracts or other natural substances/compounds, the composition and the stability of the study material must be described in sufficient detail.
All the manuscripts submitted to the collection will need to fully comply with the
Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology (you can freely download the full version
here).
