With the rise of synthetic drugs, the teaching of pharmacognosy in colleges of pharmacy all but disappeared. However, the resurgence of interest in both herbal medicine and discovery of novel plant-derived drugs may lead to a reintroduction of these subjects. At this time our pharmacognosy research group team-teaches four courses for undergraduate and pharmacy students. The oldest, Contemporary Pharmacognosy, is an elective for pharmacy students which provides a series of lectures on current areas of research in pharmacognosy including the importance of plant-derived drugs, methods of discovering new plant-derived drugs, functional foods in health care, plants in traditional and alternative medicine, safety issues, and regulatory issues. Non-prescription Pharmaceuticals and Herbal Medicines is taught with other College of Pharmacy professors; it is a pharmacy elective which includes ten lectures on popular herbal remedies which are covered in detail as to plant source, active compounds, mechanism of action, and clinical usage. Two courses are taught through the Morton Arboretum, which provides botanical instruction for a consortium of small colleges around Chicago. Medical Botany covers major and minor medicinal species that provide drugs or herbal medicines on a family-by-family basis. Contemporary Ethnobotany is a survey course in ethnobotany. Both courses are mainly lecture but include some laboratory components; the ethnobotany course includes student presentations on useful plants. Our group also offers continuing education courses for pharmacists and other health professionals on herbal medicines, covering scientific background , clinical usage, herbs in alternative medicine, and regulatory and safety issues; we have given guest lectures on herbal medicines in courses at our university's medical school. We maintain a comprehensive pharmacognosy graduate program, and are currently forming a Medical Ethnobotany track. Subject areas which draw the most attention include the politics and methods of plant-derived drug discovery and the use and regulation of herbal medicines.

Key words: drug discovery, ethnobotany, herbal medicine, medical botany