Shaman Pharmaceuticals Conducts Workshop
on Diabetes, Ethnomedicine, and Botany with BDCP Guinea
From April 17-20 two employees
of Shaman Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Thomas Carlson, Senior
Director, Ethnobiomedical Field Research, and Rowena Richter,
Associate Scientist, worked with Dr. Foula Barry and the
Guinea-BDCP to conduct a four day workshop on diabetes,
ethnomedicine, botany, and conservation. The first day
included a general meeting with over 120 participants
including the following: national government ministers;
religious leaders; Guinea Diabetes Association members;
traditional healers; students and faculty from the University
of Guinea Departments of Botany, Forestry, Chemistry,
Pharmacology, and Medicine. Dr. Maurice Iwu was present
for this first day of meetings and gave an inspiring talk
on the philosophy and goals of BDCP in Africa. Talks were
also given by the Shaman participants on diabetes, ethnomedicine,
botany, and conservation. On day two the Shaman participants
directed a detailed workshop focusing on ethnomedical
field research methodology with a particular emphasis
on noninsulin dependent diabetes mellitus. This was done
with the core BDCP-Guinea members. On days three and four
the workshop members worked with urban traditional healers
in the city of Conakry. This allowed all the workshop
members to refine their ethnomedical and botanical collection
skills. All the participants received a course packet
with ethnomedical research documents and numerous articles
on ethnomedicine, botany, conservation, intellectual property
rights, and traditional resource rights issues. It was
an extremely productive and enjoyable four days.
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