Summary: Dr. James Duke is an ethnobotantist with a Ph.D. in botany from UNC, served with Missouri Botanical Garden in his earlier years, and for over 3 decades in several posts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He was chief of the Medicinal Plant Resources Laboratory and chief of the USDA’s Economic Botany Lab. One of the most frequented part of the USDA website is his ethnobotanical and phytochemical database he created before retiring. Dr. Duke has written more than 30 books including the best selling Green Pharmacy, Dr. Duke’s Essential Herbs, Herbs of the Bible, Handbook of Edible Weeds, Duke’s Handbook of Medicinal Plants of Latin America, and Peterson’s Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America. He’s also spent years exploring the ecology and culture of the Amazon Rain Forest. Dr. Duke is currently updating the third edition of the Peterson’s guide. He mainly care takes the Green Farmacy Garden with his wife Peggy and volunteers
