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David Winston talks about the growth of the herbal medicine industry and the importance of tradition

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“In the late 1960s, all my friends were interested in one weed (cannabis), and I was interested in all the others,” he likes to say. “There were few good texts on the subject, no schools of herbal medicine, few herbal products, and significant issues of quality control, botanical identification, and little research.”

“A true renaissance of herbal medicine”

Flash forward 54 years, and Winston points to the exponential growth of high-quality herbal medicine companies, schools, products, research, and organizations.

“There has been a veritable renaissance of herbal medicine in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, countries whose herbal traditions were in steep decline for most of the 20ecentury,”He said, noting that demand in China, India, Japan, Germany, Iran and South Korea had also increased.

Its own herbal library has become one of the largest in the United States with over 8,000 volumes, and the David Winston Center for Herbal Studies has trained thousands of students in the art and science of herbal medicine. clinic since 1980. He was recently honored by the American Herbalists Guild for 32 years of service as chair and co-founder of the AHG Admissions Review Advisory Committee, alongside longest serving colleagues Christopher Hobbs and Michael Tierra.

“David deserves huge credit for adding his energy, passion, wisdom and knowledge to help grow the AHG into the many incredible professional members we have today,”said Hobbs. “He held to the highest standards while encouraging us to invite and review herbalists from different backgrounds, confirming our diversity, one of the guild’s greatest achievements.”

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