Welcome to the Native Medicinal Plant Research Program at the University of Kansas. Our program focuses on native plants and ethnobotany of the Midwest, Great Plains, and Mountain West.
Our program began in 2009 as a broad-based search for medicinal compounds of plants in our region. Over 200 hundred plants were collected in the field and screened for anti-cancer and anti-oxidants. You can learn more about this work here.
Today, our work covers a wide range of topics from growing medicinal plants and leading garden tours at the Native Medicinal Plant Garden at the KU Field Station, to field work and ethnobotany in the mountains of Colorado studying sustainable harvest of medicinal plants, to conducting ethnobotanical research projects with the Arikara, Osage and other tribes. As part of this work we are honoring traditional knowledge, by documenting the uses of plants by Native Americans through our ethnobotany database and regional studies.
On our website, you can
- Discover native plants, especially those used for medicine, food, and other purposes
- Learn more about sustainable harvest of medicinal plants
- Explore our Native Medicinal Plant Garden and also our Pharmacy Garden
Thank you for visiting,
Kelly Kindscher
Jennifer Moody
