Mark Nesbitt | Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (original) (raw)

History of botany & collections by Mark Nesbitt

Species of the genus Cinchona (Rubiaceae) have been used in traditional medicine, and as a source... more Species of the genus Cinchona (Rubiaceae) have been used in traditional medicine, and as a source for quinine since its discovery as an effective medicine against malaria in the 17th century. Despite being the sole cure of malaria for almost 350 years, little is known about the chemical diversity between and within species of the antimalarial alkaloids found in the bark. Extensive historical Cinchona bark collections housed at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, and in other museums may shed new light on the alkaloid chemistry of the Cinchona genus and the history of the quest for the most effective Cinchona barks. Aim of the study: We used High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) coupled with fluorescence detection (FLD) to reanalyze a set of Cinchona barks originally annotated for the four major quinine alkaloids by John Eliot Howard and others more than 150 years ago. Materials and methods: We performed an archival search on the Cinchona bark collections in the Economic Botany Collection housed in Kew, focusing on those with historical alkaloid content information. Then, we performed HPLC analysis of the bark samples to separate and quantify the four major quinine alkaloids and the total alkaloid content using fluorescence detection. Correlations between historic and current annotations were calculated using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, before paired comparisons were performed using Wilcox rank sum tests. The effects of source were explored using generalized linear modelling (GLM), before the significance of each parameter in predicting alkaloid concentrations were assessed using chi-square tests as likelihood ratio testing (LRT) models. Results: The total alkaloid content estimation obtained by our HPLC analysis was comparatively similar to the historical chemical annotations made by Howard. Additionally, the quantity of two of the major alkaloids, quinine and cinchonine, and the total content of the four alkaloids obtained were significantly similar between the historical and current day analysis using linear regression. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the historical chemical analysis by Howard and current day HPLC alkaloid content estimations are comparable. Current day HPLC analysis thus provide a realistic estimate of the alkaloid contents in the historical bark samples at the time of sampling more than 150 years ago. Museum collections provide a powerful but underused source of material for understanding early use and collecting history as well as for comparative analyses with current day samples.

Mobile Museums presents an argument for the importance of circulation in the study of museum coll... more Mobile Museums presents an argument for the importance of circulation in the study of museum collections, past and present. It brings together an impressive array of international scholars and curators from a wide variety of disciplines – including the history of science, museum anthropology and postcolonial history - to consider the mobility of collections. The book combines historical perspectives on the circulation of museum objects in the past with contemporary accounts of their re-mobilisation, notably in the context of Indigenous community engagement. Contributors seek to explore processes of circulation historically in order to re-examine, inform and unsettle common assumptions about the way museum collections have evolved over time and through space.

By foregrounding questions of circulation, the chapters in Mobile Museums collectively represent a fundamental shift in the understanding of the history and future uses of museum collections. The book addresses a variety of different types of collection, including the botanical, the ethnographic, the economic and the archaeological. Its perspective is truly global, with case studies drawn from South America, West Africa, Oceania, Australia, the United States, Europe and the UK. Mobile Museums helps us to understand why the mobility of museum collections was a fundamental aspect of their history and why it continues to matter today.

The date palm, Phoenix dactylifera, has been a cornerstone of Middle Eastern and North African ag... more The date palm, Phoenix dactylifera, has been a cornerstone of Middle Eastern and North African agriculture for millennia. It was first domesticated in the Persian Gulf, and its evolution appears to have been influenced by gene flow from two wild relatives, P. theophrasti, currently restricted to Crete and Turkey, and P. sylvestris, widespread from Bangladesh to the West Himalayas. Genomes of ancient date palm seeds show that gene flow from P. theophrasti to P. dactylifera may have occurred by 2,200yearsago,buttracesofP.sylvestriscouldnotbedetected.Wehereintegratearcheogenomicsofa2,200 years ago, but traces of P. sylvestris could not be detected. We here integrate archeogenomics of a 2,200yearsago,buttracesofP.sylvestriscouldnotbedetected.Wehereintegratearcheogenomicsofa2,100-year-old P. dactylifera leaf from Saqqara (Egypt), molecular-clock dating, and coalescence approaches with population genomic tests, to probe the hybridization between the date palm and its two closest relatives and provide minimum and maximum timestamps for its reticulated evolution. The Saqqara date palm shares a close genetic affinity with North African date palm populations, and we find clear genomic admixture from both P. theophrasti, and P. sylvestris, indicating that both had contributed to the date palm genome by 2,100 years ago. Molecular-clocks placed the divergence of P. theophrasti from P. dactylifera/P. sylvestris and that of P. dactylifera from P. sylvestris in the Upper Miocene, but strongly supported, conflicting topologies point to older gene flow between P. theophrasti and P. dactylifera, and P. sylvestris and P. dactylifera. Our work highlights the ancient hybrid origin of the date palms, and prompts the investigation of the functional significance of genetic material introgressed from both close relatives, which in turn could prove useful for modern date palm breeding.

Journal of Museum Education, 2021

This article analyzes an educational initiative between Kew Gardens, Royal Holloway, University o... more This article analyzes an educational initiative between Kew Gardens, Royal Holloway, University of London, and two London primary schools. The schools, located in areas of high ethnic diversity, worked with the members of the Mobile Museum project team – including the Learning Department at Kew and researchers at both institutions – to create their own school museums. The idea was inspired by historical research conducted by the project team that demonstrated Kew’s historic involvement in the promotion of object-based learning in schools. The project team worked with teachers and pupils to develop a participatory approach to learning about plants and their uses through the creation of school museums. A whole-school framework was adopted, extending the potential reach of the project to pupils’ parents and communities. Inspired by the collections at Kew, schools used plants and plant-associated artifacts to learn more about the rich diversity of pupils' cultural backgrounds and the importance of plants to their heritage and their everyday lives.

The watermelon (Citrullus lanatus subsp.vulgaris) is among the world's most important fruit crops... more The watermelon (Citrullus lanatus subsp.vulgaris) is among the world's most important fruit crops. We here use C-14 dating and morphometric analysis to test whether ancient seeds can be identified to species level, which would help document food expansion, innovation, and diversity in Northeastern Africa. We dated a Libyan seed to 6182–6001 calibrated years BP, making it the oldest Citrullus seed known. Morphometric analysis could not reliably assign ancient seeds to particular species, but several seeds showed breakage patterns characteristic of modern watermelon seeds cracked by human teeth. Our study contributes to the understanding of the early his-tory of watermelon use by humans, who may have mostly snacked on the seeds, and cautions against the use of morphology alone to identify Citrullus archaeological samples.

, é resultado das atividades desenvolvidas no âmbito do projeto de repatriação digital de coleçõe... more , é resultado das atividades desenvolvidas no âmbito do projeto de repatriação digital de coleções bioculturais, isto é, coleções de objetos feitos com matérias-primas provenientes de plantas e animais, que foram coletados na Amazônia brasileira, no passado, e que hoje se encontram guardados em instituições na Europa. O projeto é fruto da parceria que envolve o Birkbeck, Universidade de Londres, o Jardim Botânico Real de Kew, o Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), o Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro (JBRJ), o Museu Etnológico de Berlim (MEB), o Museu Britânico e a Federação das Organizações Indígenas do Rio Negro (FOIRN), contando com o apoio da British Academy e do Birkbeck (Martins, 2021). Em junho de 2019, pesquisadores e conhecedores indígenas visitaram Londres e Berlim para pesquisar e conversar com pesquisadores não-indígenas sobre as coleções do alto rio Negro que se encontram nos acervos do Jardim Prefácio Da esquerda para a direita:

Apuntos, 2022

Este artículo es el resultado de una valoración de los objetos colombianos en la Colección de Bot... more Este artículo es el resultado de una valoración de los objetos colombianos en la Colección de Botánica Económica del Real Jardín Botánico de Kew. Hace parte del proyecto ColPlantA, encargado de documentar la colección colombiana y de producir un portal de búsqueda sobre la flora colombiana. Para este artículo se hizo un análisis general de la colección colombiana, que resultó en una descripción de los géneros y especies representativas, los usos de la flora nativa colombiana y sus coleccionistas. Además, se describen algunos objetos que reflejan los intereses científicos y económicos de Gran Bretaña en Colombia. Esta colección es una ventana a las dinámicas entre una institución académica imperial como Kew con regiones como Colombia, de la periferia global de aquel entonces.

A cultural history of plants: nineteenth century, 2022

10.1093/molbev/msac168, 2022

Iconographic evidence from Egypt suggests that watermelon pulp was consumed there as a dessert by... more Iconographic evidence from Egypt suggests that watermelon pulp was consumed there as a dessert by 4,360 BP. Earlier archaeobotanical evidence comes from seeds from Neolithic settlements in Libya, but whether these were watermelons with sweet pulp or other forms is unknown. We generated genome sequences from 6,000-and 3,300-year-old seeds from Libya and Sudan, and from worldwide herbarium collections made between 1824 and 2019, and analyzed these data together with resequenced genomes from important germplasm collections for a total of 131 accessions. Phylogenomic and population-genomic analyses reveal that (1) much of the nuclear genome of both ancient seeds is traceable to West African seed-use "egusi-type" watermelon (Citrullus mucosospermus) rather than domesticated pulp-use watermelon (Citrullus lanatus ssp. vulgaris); (2) the 6,000-year-old watermelon likely had bitter pulp and greenish-white flesh as today found in C. mucosospermus, given alleles in the bitterness regulators ClBT and in the red color marker LYCB; and (3) both ancient genomes showed admixture from C. mucosospermus, C. lanatus ssp. cordophanus, C. lanatus ssp. vulgaris, and even South African Citrullus amarus, and evident introgression between the Libyan seed (UMB-6) and populations of C. lanatus. An unexpected new insight is that Citrullus appears to have initially been collected or cultivated for its seeds, not its flesh, consistent with seed damage patterns induced by human teeth in the oldest Libyan material.

Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid, 2022

During the “Real Expedición Botánica al Virreinato del Perú”, 1777–1816, Hipólito Ru... more During the “Real Expedición Botánica al Virreinato del Perú”, 1777–1816, Hipólito Ruiz López (1754–1816), José Antonio Pavón Jiménez (1754–1840), Juan José Tafalla Navascués (1755–1811) and Juan Agustín Manzanilla (fl. 1793–1816) collected economically important specimens of anti-malarial cinchona bark (Cinchona spp.). In the 230 years since, these specimens have been dispersed across institutions in Spain, Britain, Germany and Italy. Two major sub-collections of these are found at the Real Jardín Botánico, Madrid, Spain (n = 243), and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK (n = 188). The Kew collection arrived in Britain through Pavón and other Spanish botanists selling part of the collections. This study traces the history, trajectory and relationship of the collections between the two institutes

The Andean fever tree (Cinchona L.; Rubiaceae) is a source of bioactive quinine alkaloids used to... more The Andean fever tree (Cinchona L.; Rubiaceae) is a source of bioactive quinine alkaloids used to treat malaria. C. pubescens Vahl is a valuable cash crop within its native range in northwestern South America, however, genomic resources are lacking. Here we provide the first highly contiguous and annotated nuclear and plastid genome assemblies using Oxford Nanopore PromethION-derived long-read and Illumina short-read data. Our nuclear genome assembly comprises 603 scaffolds with a total length of 904 Mbp (∼82% of the full genome based on a genome size of 1.1 Gbp/1C). Using a combination of de novo and reference-based transcriptome assemblies we annotated 72,305 coding sequences comprising 83% of the BUSCO gene set and 4.6% fragmented sequences. Using additional plastid and nuclear datasets we place C. pubescens in the Gentianales order. This first genomic resource for C. pubescens opens new research avenues, including the analysis of alkaloid biosynthesis in the fever tree.

Research in Plant Humanities is undertaken in many disciplines concerned with aspects of the rela... more Research in Plant Humanities is undertaken in many disciplines concerned with aspects of the relationships between people and plants at a variety of scales. These include anthropology, archaeology, cultural and media studies, creative arts, development studies, geography, history, languages, literature, philosophy and psychology. The growing academic interest in botanic gardens as sites where research, learning and public engagement activities are co-located is mirrored by increasing interest within botanic gardens (for example at Kew or Edinburgh) and horticultural organisations (for example, the Royal Horticultural Society) in what university-based arts and humanities researchers can offer. 3. Relationship to UKRI Strategic Priorities. As a research area, Plant Humanities maps closely onto AHRC's priority theme, Interdisciplinarity for contemporary challenges. Given its inherent interdisciplinarity and cross-sector focus, the field provides a basis for addressing a wide range of challenges, including agroecology, food security, and biodiversity loss; cultural heritage, diversity and inclusion; environment, health and well-being in a post-Covid era; and the future management of land assets within the UK in the context of climate change. Plant Humanities is also well aligned to AHRC's priority theme on Arts and science, arts in science. The application of new creative methods and approaches to the interpretation of botanical collections can bring significant tangible public benefits. Given the placed-based opportunities they provide for engagement, learning and experiment of various kinds, botanic gardens are ideal sites, physically and intellectually, for the meeting of arts and science. Plant Humanities research also addresses further AHRC themes such as Research unlocking cultural assets and Public policy and public engagement. Research on the historical and cultural dimensions of botanical assets (including herbaria, artefacts, art, archive, print, seed, tissue, digital data and living collections) can contribute significantly to knowledge and understanding in the arts and humanities as well as to the enrichment of public engagement. At the same time, the institutions holding such collections, notably botanic gardens and museums, are focussing more directly on questions of public policy including the diversity of their audiences, global inequities of access to biocultural heritage, and the public understanding of science.

Molecular identification of plants: from sequence to species, 2023

Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2023

Introducing additional complexity to naming standards could slow down the documentation of biodiv... more Introducing additional complexity to naming standards could slow down the documentation of biodiversity, which is a risk we cannot afford at a time of crisis. Mass renaming would also complicate access to existing taxonomic literature, including the regional floras, faunas and fungas that are so essential to field biology and conservation. Ultimately, we argue it is a taxonomist's responsibility-as well as within the bounds of academic freedom-to construct appropriate scientific names.

A wild relative of the garden pea, formerly called Pisum sativum L., but now included in the genu... more A wild relative of the garden pea, formerly called Pisum sativum L., but now included in the genus Lathyrus, is illustrated, and its relationship to cultivated peas is discussed. Recent studies of the DNA of Pisum and Lathyrus have led to the change of name for this common species. It is generally confusing to non-specialists (and most specialists) when a familiar Linnean species undergoes a sudden name change, and even more remarkable when the 'new' name turns out to have been published in the late 18th century, not long after Linnaeus' first edition of Species Plantarum. The author of Lathyrus oleraceus was Jean Baptiste Antoine Pierre de Monnet de Lamarck (1744-1829). Lamarck's career was remarkable even for those unsettled times, and he is well-known, and sometimes derided, for his belief in the inheritance of acquired characters. He was however an early proponent of evolution and adaptation of organisms to the environment which he saw in his studies of molluscs as well as of plants. Lamarck's Flore Française ou description succincte de toutes les plantes qui croissent naturellement en France, was arranged like an analytical key, to help identification of the species. Most of the names followed Linnaeus, but in the case of the garden pea, he quoted Pisum sativum L. as a synonym of Lathyrus oleraceus, and under it he described the wild variety, Pisum arvense L., recognised by Tournefort, writing that it appeared to be naturalised in Alsace. Therefore

[ Research paper thumbnail of Interpreting materia medica. A case study on Ioannes Archiatrus [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/109920910/thumbnails/1.jpg)

Wellcome Open Research, 2023

Background Premodern medical texts are an invaluable source for scholars from humanities and scie... more Background
Premodern medical texts are an invaluable source for scholars from humanities and sciences. However, they are usually not accessible as few scientists with an interest in premodern materia medica are also qualiﬁed philologists. Therefore, a balance has to be struck to translate these texts while preserving information on how reliable we believe a given translation to be. In this paper, we conduct a case study on the vernacular version of Ioannes archiatrus.

Methods
The present study forms part of the output of a multidisciplinary Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award combining humanities and sciences. We deployed a multi-layer tagging system to systematise pharmaceutical terminology and to translate these terms while providing conﬁdence factors for individual words. In a second step, we used AntConc, a freeware concordance software, to analyse our primary source and visualise patterns in the text.

Results
Our methodology created a readable text that made it possible for the reader to check conﬁdence factors. It also allows our translation and tagging to be recycled for further research.

Conclusions
Our methods provide a tool that allows to balance the need to translate and the necessary caution about translated plant and mineral names. Our approach is transferable and it can be modiﬁed to suit the needs of other primary sources.

Throughout the world, traditional medical systems continue to be important to healthcare. They va... more Throughout the world, traditional medical systems continue to be important to healthcare. They vary greatly in their underlying beliefs, but almost all share the use of herbal medicines as a central practice. Ancient Mesopotamia – the area of modern-day Iraq and adjoining regions – offers a special opportunity to study such medical practice in antiquity. Many thousands of clay tablets survive, some over 5,000 years old, bearing texts relating to life in the past.

Drawing on the expertise of Assyriologists, botanists and archaeologists, An Ancient Mesopotamian Herbal explores the deep history of plants in traditional medicine and offers a groundbreaking reassessment of existing research.

Combining methods from the humanities and science, the authors provide a concise overview of ancient Mesopotamian culture and herbal lore, along with new identifications of Assyrian and Babylonian herbal medicines, focusing on 25 case studies.

Ethnopharmacological relevance In recent decades, the study of historical texts has attracted res... more Ethnopharmacological relevance
In recent decades, the study of historical texts has attracted research interest, particularly in ethnopharmacology. All studies of the materia medica cited in ancient and medieval texts share a concern, however, as to the reliability of modern identifications of these substances. Previous studies of European or Mediterranean texts relied mostly on authoritative dictionaries or glossaries providing botanical identities for the historical plant names in question. Several identities they suggest, however, are questionable and real possibility of error exists.

Aim of the study
This study aims to develop and document a novel and interdisciplinary methodology providing more objective assessment of the identity of the plants (and minerals) described in these resources.

Materials and methods
We developed an iterative experimental approach, using the 13th century Byzantine recipe text John the Physician's Therapeutics in its Commentary version (JC) as a case study. The methodology has six stages and relies on comparative analyses including statistical evaluation of botanical descriptions and information about medicinal uses drawn from both historical and modern sources. Stages 1–4 create the dataset, stage 5 derives the primary outcomes to be reviewed by experts in stage 6.

Results
Using Disocorides’ De Materia Medica (DMM) (1st century CE) as the culturally related reference text for the botanical descriptions of the plants cited in JC, allowed us to link the 194 plants used medicinally in JC with 252 plants cited in DMM. Our test sample for subsequent analyses consisted of the 50 JC plant names (corresponding to 61 DMM plants) for which DMM holds rich morphological information, and the 130 candidate species which have been suggested in the literature as potential botanical identities of those 50 JC plant names. Statistical evaluation of the comparative analyses revealed that in the majority of the cases, our method detected the candidate species having a higher likelihood of being the correct attribution from among the pool of suggested candidates. Final assessment and revision provided a list of the challenges associated with applying our methodology more widely and recommendations on how to address these issues.

Conclusions
We offer this multidisciplinary approach to more evidence-based assessment of the identity of plants in historical texts providing a measure of confidence for each suggested identity. Despite the experimental nature of our methodology and its limitations, its application allowed us to draw conclusions about the validity of suggested candidate plants as well as to distinguish between alternative candidates of the same historical plant name. Fully documenting the methodology facilitates its application to historical texts of any kind of cultural or linguistic background.

Journal of Museum Ethnography, 2016

This paper is concerned with economic botany collections, which may not appear to be of immediate... more This paper is concerned with economic botany collections, which may not appear to be of immediate interest to the museum ethnographer. However, such biocultural collections were, and still are, very much concerned with the accumulation of ethnographic material culture and offer an alternative insight into the notion of ‘nature and culture,’ one in which nature and culture are juxtaposed within a single interpretative
framework.

Journal of Museum Education, 2021

Apuntos, 2022

A cultural history of plants: nineteenth century, 2022

10.1093/molbev/msac168, 2022

Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid, 2022

Molecular identification of plants: from sequence to species, 2023

Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2023

Wellcome Open Research, 2023

Results
Our methodology created a readable text that made it possible for the reader to check conﬁdence factors. It also allows our translation and tagging to be recycled for further research.

Journal of Museum Ethnography, 2016

Journal of Ethnobiology, 2021

Ethnobiology, like many fields, was shaped by early Western imperial efforts to colonize people a... more Ethnobiology, like many fields, was shaped by early Western imperial efforts to colonize people and lands around the world and extract natural resources. Those legacies and practices persist today and continue to influence the institutions ethnobiologists are a part of, how they carry out research, and their personal beliefs and actions. Various authors have previously outlined five overlapping “phases” of ethnobiology. Here, we argue that ethnobiology should move toward a sixth phase in which scholars and practitioners must actively challenge colonialism, racism, and oppressive structures embedded within their institutions, projects, and themselves. As an international group of ethnobiologists and scholars from allied fields, we identified key topics and priorities at three levels: at the institutional scale, we argue for repatriation/rematriation of biocultural heritage, accessibility of published work, and realignment of priorities to support community-driven research. At the level of projects, we emphasize the need for mutual dialogue, reciprocity, community research self-sufficiency, and research questions that support sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities over lands and waters. Finally, for individual scholars, we support self-reflection on language use, co-authorship, and implicit bias. We advocate for concrete actions at each of these levels to move the field further toward social justice, antiracism, and decolonization.

Biocultural collections are ethnobiological specimens, artefacts and documents-plant, animal and ... more Biocultural collections are ethnobiological specimens, artefacts and documents-plant, animal and cultural-that represent dynamic relationships among peoples, biota, and environments (Ethnobiology Working Group, 2003). When thinking about Biocultural Collections, we must think broadly, considering ethnobiology, economic botany, ethnography, archaeology, geography, agriculture, medicine, linguistics, history, art and so on; we must think of large institutional collections and small local collections. It is important to stress that ethnobiology is a dynamic field in which processes, transformations and associations are central. For example, rice is more than a grain: it is planted, grown, domesticated, harvested, selected, cooked, eaten, made into paper, used as symbols and in ritual, and central cosmologically to many cultures. Capturing these dynamic relationships requires more than the collection of objects: documentation of their provenance, language, images, use, processing and ethnographic context-or metadata-are also crucial components. Biocultural collections are numerous, diverse, and consummately useful, varying widely in size and scope from a few hundred specimens comprising the personal collection of a field ethnobotanist, to institutional collections containing hundreds of thousands of accessions. They include valuable botanical, zoological and ethnographic objects such as biological specimens, natural products and cultural artefacts from around the world, yet they are often neglected, deteriorating, orphaned and inaccessible. Many institutions have inadequate information and equipment to deal with the special curatorial needs of biocultural collections. Their collections languish in old cardboard boxes, abandoned in the back of herbaria or in storage rooms. (For example, The New York Botanical Garden's (NY) Henry Hurd Rusby collection suffered in this way before it was recently curated; Chapter 4.) The amount of attention and resources devoted to biocultural collections is thus in stark contrast to their immense value. Historical collections form a kind of 'time capsule', preserving evidence of technologies, cultivars, uses and traditional knowledge that are changing or no longer extant, and often otherwise undocumented. Magnificent personal collections are routinely left undocumented and orphaned upon the retirement or death of the collector, and historically valuable biocultural collections rapidly deteriorate if left uncurated (cf. Kautz, 2000). For example, the Hugh Cutler (1912-1998) collection of some 12,000 corn cobs at Missouri Botanical Garden (MO) had been reduced to less than half its original size after sequential transfers among foster institutions. WHAT ARE BIOCULTURAL COLLECTIONS? Briefly summarised, biocultural collections are repositories for plants and animals used by people, products made from them, and/or information and archives about them. They include any object made from plant and/or animal material, and especially those with a specific cultural connotation BIOCULTURAL COLLECTIONS: NEEDS, ETHICS AND GOALS f 7 BIOCULTURAL COLLECTIONS: NEEDS, ETHICS AND GOALS curation manuals for the cultural museum sector, many available online, and an important function of this book is to summarise and draw attention to these resources. Responsibility for improved curation does not lie with curators alone. Collectors must also pay closer attention to the fate of their specimens, to access protocols and permissions and to the sustainability of curation. Sometimes, ethnobiological materials can be collected in multiples, so it is possible to choose multiple depositories to meet varying needs. The well-known ethnobiologists Brent and Elois Berlin are a positive example: recently, they donated their archives and 25,000 voucher specimens to the Smithsonian Institution (US). Databases and images Biocultural collections need to be inventoried and stored electronically; common database terminology needs to be used for cross referencing among collections. Now, inter-operable software and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) make it possible to search disparate biocultural collections simultaneously across multiple databases. However, biocultural-collection databases first need to be reviewed to implement common standards where possible, and tables of equivalencies should be defined when required (Chapter 11). Databasing and digitisation are a vital element of increased access and use. Searches across multiple collection databases have the potential to virtually reunite dispersed collections, and to reveal unexpected intersections of specimen data and themes among museums and across disciplines. Few websites have images of their biocultural collections online, but when such resources exist, they are visited frequently. At Missouri Botanical Garden, for example, a website that includes historical images of useful plants has received over 9 million hits per year (www.botanicus.org) and sales of historical images of useful plants are brisk. People are using images of useful plants and animals in all walks of life for education, publication, advertisement, demonstration and decoration, as well as in scientific and humanities research. Biocultural collections and individual ethnobotanists have huge collections of useful plant and animal images, yet these are overwhelmingly unavailable and undocumented. Access and use Underused collections are the most vulnerable, both because it is difficult to make a good case for sustained funding and because when damage occurs to specimens, for example through attack by pests, it will not be noticed until too late. The disadvantage that biocultural collections often suffer in not fitting within narrowly defined institutional missions is also their strength: as an archive of specimens that represent human-nature relationships, they appeal to highly diverse audiences, both in terms of academic disciplines and in terms of background. The key to unlocking these uses and engaging new audiences is collaboration with academic researchers from multiple disciplines, teachers, artists, volunteers and source communities. Our experience is that ethnobiological specimens, particularly artefacts, and the stories that underlie their creation, are charismatic and well able to attract new users. Improving user access to collections, however, requires consideration of artefact preservation (Chapter 2), user safety (Chapter 4), and ethics (Chapters 17-19). Ethics Biocultural collections face special problems of intellectual property that must be addressed before these collections are put into broad usage (Ethnobiology Working Group, 2003; Simmonds, 2009; Chapter 16). Two valuable reviews of ethics in ethnobiology are those by Hardison & Bannister (2011)

The use of biodiversity for food and nutrition requires accurate, reliable and accessible food co... more The use of biodiversity for food and nutrition requires accurate, reliable and accessible food composition data. It is essential for users of such data to be certain of the reliability of identification and naming of food plants, which is particularly problematic for lesser-known wild or locally cultivated species. The aims of this paper are to assess the reliability and quality of botanical information in papers citing quantitative food composition data of wild and locally cultivated species, and to make recommendations for minimum standards in publishing botanical information with food composition data. We developed a framework for evaluating sample plant identification and nomenclature, and surveyed 50 papers referring to 502 species sampled (‘sample plants’) associated with one or more nutritional datum. We also tested whether or not a botanist was involved in the identification of ‘difficult to identify’ species. Of 502 sample plants, only 36 followed best practice for plant identification, and 37 followed best practice for plant nomenclature. Overall, 27% of sample plants were listed with names that are not in current use, or are incorrectly spelt, or both. Only 159 sample plants would have been found from a database search of citations and abstracts. Considering the importance of food composition data from wild and locally cultivated food species, and the cost of analysis, researchers need to identify, name and publish species correctly. Drawing on the fields of ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology, comprehensive recommendations are given for best practice.

KEYWORDS: Food composition • Plant identification • Plant nomenclature • Voucher specimens • Methodology • Taxonomy • Botany • Ethnobotany • Biodiversity and nutrition

J. Food. Comp. Analy. Nov 2010 23 (6) 486-498
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2009.03.001

Ethnobiology, like many fields, was shaped by early Western imperial efforts to colonize people a... more Ethnobiology, like many fields, was shaped by early Western imperial efforts to colonize people and lands around the world and extract natural resources. Those legacies and practices persist today and continue to influence the institutions ethnobiologists are a part of, how they carry out research, and their personal beliefs and actions. Various authors have previously outlined five overlapping "phases" of ethnobiology. Here, we argue that ethnobiology should move toward a sixth phase in which scholars and practitioners must actively challenge colonialism, racism, and oppressive structures embedded within their institutions, projects, and themselves. As an international group of ethnobiologists and scholars from allied fields, we identified key topics and priorities at three levels: at the institutional scale, we argue for repatriation/rematriation of biocultural heritage, accessibility of published work, and realignment of priorities to support community-driven research. At the level of projects, we emphasize the need for mutual dialogue, reciprocity, community research self-sufficiency, and research questions that support sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities over lands and waters. Finally, for individual scholars, we support self-reflection on language use, co-authorship, and implicit bias. We advocate for concrete actions at each of these levels to move the field further toward social justice, antiracism, and decolonization.

Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2018

This small-scale macroscopic and quantitative authentication study, the first of its kind in the ... more This small-scale macroscopic and quantitative authentication study, the first of its kind in the UK and elsewhere, assesses the identity and purity (excluding pesticides and heavy metals) of a selection of Chinese materia medica (CMM) seeds and fruits on the UK market. 25 fruit and seed CMM were chosen based on their inclusion in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2010, referred hereafter as 'official species'), maximum dimension of 10 mm, and regular use in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practice in the UK according to UK practitioners. In 2012 samples were obtained from six TCM wholesale traders and eight retail dispensaries in southeast England. Macroscopic identity and purity testing was undertaken drawing on expertise at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and its collection of vouchered CMM reference drugs, herbarium specimens and published identification texts. Of the 25 CMM requested from suppliers, 23 were obtained, represented by 211 samples. 191 samples were identified as being sourced from the correct drug; 20 were identified as sourced from unofficial species. Of the 191 correct samples, 5 displayed major contamination by other plant material, stones, earth, etc. (defined as >5% of sample volume), and 12 had minor contamination (2–5%). 95% of samples derived from medicinally cultivated plants were sourced from an official species, 5% were contaminated; in contrast, 78% of wild-sourced CMM samples were sourced from an official species, and 14% showed contamination. These results aim to guide the further development of good practice in TCM herbal drug quality control, for which suggestions are provided.

Potpourri as a Sustainable Plant Product: Identity,Origin, and Conservation Status. While display... more Potpourri as a Sustainable Plant Product: Identity,Origin, and Conservation Status. While displays of decorative dried plant material are popular in homes in Europe and North America, knowledge regarding potpourri ingredients is limited. This study examined the identity, diversity, origin, economic
sources, and sustainability of such ingredients used in theUnited Kingdom (UK). Research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, commencing in 1990 and involving 1,000 samples of individual potpourri ingredients from 12 UKmanufacturers and traders, revealed 546 different ingredients, representing up to 455 species, 289 genera, and over 100 families. Despite thewide taxonomic spread, several distinct plant part–family groups contributed the most potpourri ingredients: i.e., fruits from Arecaceae,
Fabaceae, Malvaceae, Pinaceae, Poaceae, and Rutaceae; seeds from Fabaceae; leaves from Arecaceae, Fabaceae, and Poaceae; inflorescences from Asteraceae; as well as stems from cane, pith, timber, and pole wood. The vast majority of ingredients imported from Asia, especially India, were
byproducts from crops and wild harvested species used by the Indian herbal healthcare industry. Global conservation assessments are lacking for 80% of wild collected Indian potpourri species, and those that have assessments are mainly abundant and widespread in ruderal or wetland habitats and
of Least Concern (IUCN 2013), except Pterocarpus marsupium and P. indicus (Fabaceae), which are vulnerable globally, and Calamus andamanicus (Arecaceae) and Oroxylum indicum
(Bignoniaceae), which are vulnerable nationally within India. A further eight, primarily medicinally traded species, are regarded as threatened within individual Indian states. Additional unique potpourri ingredients were sourced from Thailand, but only about one-tenth of study samples
were from Africa, Middle East, Europe, America, and Australia. Temporal studies of potpourri ingredients could reflect changes in the use and abundance of species in other trades such as medicines, food, and materials.

The herbarium -a collection of pressed plants mounted on paper -is central to the practice of eth... more The herbarium -a collection of pressed plants mounted on paper -is central to the practice of ethnobotany, and to the use of all the other plant collections discussed in this book. Herbarium specimens both vouch for the identity of the plants being studied, and are themselves documents of plant use by people.

The use of biodiversity for food and nutrition requires accurate, reliable and accessible food co... more The use of biodiversity for food and nutrition requires accurate, reliable and accessible food composition data. It is essential for users of such data to be certain of the reliability of identification and naming of food plants, which is particularly problematic for lesser-known wild or locally cultivated plants. The aims of this paper are to assess the reliability and quality of botanical information in papers citing quantitative food composition data of wild and locally cultivated species and to make recommendations forminimum standards in publishing botanical information with food composition data.We developed a framework for evaluating sample plant identification and nomenclature, and surveyed 50 papers
referring to 502 species sampled (‘sample plants’), each associated with one or more nutritional data.We also tested whether or not a botanist was involved in the identification of ‘difficult to identify’ species. Of 502 sample plants, only 36 followed best practice for plant identification, and 37 followed best practice for plant nomenclature. Overall, 27% of sample plants were listed with names that are not in current use,
or are incorrectly spelt, or both. Only 159 sample plants would have been found from a database search of
citations and abstracts. Considering the need for food composition data from wild and locally cultivated food species, and the cost of analysis, researchers must identify, name and publish species correctly. Drawing on the fields of ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology, comprehensive recommendations are given for best practice.

The basic methodology for identifying biological remains from archaeological sites ("biodata") re... more The basic methodology for identifying biological remains from archaeological sites ("biodata") relies on comparison of unknown material with specimens of known identity. Such known specimens exist in biological collections, held, for example, in museums and archaeological science laboratories. The term "reference collection" is often used for the latter, with the implication that the material is specifically for comparison. Common types of reference collection include seeds, pollen, phytoliths, wood and vegetative anatomy, animal bones, teeth and antlers, animal hair and skin, shells, and insects. Although still primarily gathered for morphological and anatomical comparison, biological collections have also become important as a source of DNA and for other chemical analyses, such as stable isotope investigations. The initial sorting and identification of biodata can be carried out using printed and online manuals, but actual reference materials are essential to verify and determine more difficult identifications. Reference collections are also used to identify subsidiary parts of an organism, for example, cereal chaff or fruit stalks; and specimens with detailed provenance can give further insights, for example, teeth from knownaged animals can be used to age archaeological specimens. National and local museums can contain many millions of biological specimens. These collections may not be designed as reference collections for use within archaeology, but they remain an essential resource for specialist work. Full acknowledgment and citation of any The Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences. Edited by Sandra L. López Varela.

Nesbitt, M. 2016. 'Chapter 15. Plant remains' in Tille Höyük 3. The Iron Age. Vol. 2. Pottery, Ob... more Nesbitt, M. 2016. 'Chapter 15. Plant remains' in Tille Höyük 3. The Iron Age. Vol. 2. Pottery, Objects and ConcIusions, by S. Blaylock, pp. 369-94. London: British Institute at Ankara.

The importance of the hulled wheats in past societies is hardly reflected in their current status... more The importance of the hulled wheats in past societies is hardly reflected in their current status as minor, ever-declining crops in isolated, marginal areas. Yet the hulled wheats were among the earliest domesticated plants, spread over Eurasia from the British Isles to central Asia, and were staple crops for many millennia. Our aim is to outline the history of the hulled wheats from domestication to classical antiquity, focusing on some key research questions. We will concentrate on the evidence of archaeobotany -the study of plant remains from archaeological excavations -because this is direct evidence for the presence and use of hulled wheats in the past. Textual evidence -whether from clay tablets or medieval manuscripts -presents major difficulties in interpretation, some of which are discussed later on.

The selected articles in the current issue throw new light on our understanding of how Homo sapie... more The selected articles in the current issue throw new light on our understanding of how Homo sapiens became caught in the agriculture trap in the Near East. They are the outcome of the session entitled 'Origins of agriculture in the Near East' held at the 15th IWGP conference in Wilhelmshaven 2010. The subject is constantly being revised as new information and more refined analyses become available, so these papers provide a state of the art in 2010/2011. Each major discovery adds complexity to what has become a multi-faceted puzzle with data being drawn from disciplines as wide apart as archaeology and genetics, plant biology and palaeo-climatology. In this issue papers concentrate on results obtained from charred plant remains and their interpretation. During the last half of the 20th century ground-breaking scholars like

The encyclopedia of seeds: science, technology and uses, 2006

The encyclopedia of seeds: science, technology and uses, 65-70, 2006

A flotation machine was used to process large quantities of earth at thc S a x excavation in the ... more A flotation machine was used to process large quantities of earth at thc S a x excavation in the 1990 and 1991 seasons. Carbonised seeds and charcoal were rccovcrcd from A wide range of contexts dating to about 1900 BC. While ovcrall quantities were low, enough contexts were productive to allow quantification.