Dr Chris Etheridge

Christopher Etheridge is a leading Medical Herbalist (Phytotherapist) with extensive experience as a herbal practitioner, published researcher and writer.

Chris is Chair of the British Herbal Medicine Association (BHMA), Chair of the Herbal Practitioner Supplier’s Scheme (HPSS), President of the College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy (CPP) and President of the European Herbal and Traditional Medicines Professional Association (EHTPA).

Mark Blumenthal

Mark Blumenthal is the Founder and Executive Director of the American Botanical Council (ABC), an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to disseminating accurate, reliable, and responsible information on herbs and medicinal plants. He is the Editor/Publisher of HerbalGram, an international, peer-reviewed quarterly journal, the contents of which reflect the educational goals of ABC. Mark has served as Co-Founder and former Vice-President of the Herb Research Foundation (HRF) and President of the Herb Trade Association. He was also a founding board member of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA).

Dr Anthony Booker

Dr. Anthony Booker, an expert in Chinese herbal medicines and medicinal plant science at the University of Westminster. He obtained his PhD at University College London in Ethnopharmacy and Pharmacognosy. His research thesis focused on the value chains of Curcuma longa (Turmeric) and how different value chains can affect both the livelihoods of the producing farmers and the quality of the finished products. During two post-doctoral projects at UCL he investigated the quality of herbal medicinal products and their ingredients. Anthony is published in a wide variety of scientific journals and books and his current research interests focus on the use of plant metabolomics and how this can be used to improve the quality of traditional medicines hereby tackling issues such as poor quality and adulteration. He is currently senior lecturer in Chinese herbal medicine and medicinal plant science at the University of Westminster. He is a member of The British Pharmacopoeia expert advisory group on Complementary and Herbal Medicines, a Member and past president of The Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine, a Member of The Royal Society of Chemistry and Fellow of The Linnean Society.

Prof. Dr. Funda N. Yalçın

She graduated from Hacettepe University Faculty of Pharmacy in 1994, received a Master's degree in the Department of Pharmacognosy from Hacettepe University Faculty of Pharmacy in 1996, and a Doctorate in the same department in 2002. Between 1999 and 2000, she was a visiting researcher at the University of Utah (Salt Lake City-USA) for 11 months to conduct studies on "Bioactive compounds obtained from Marine organisms". She became an Associate Professor in 2007 and a full Professor in 2013 at Hacettepe University Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacognosy. She has been serving on the Board of Directors of the Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy Association since 2005. She has been a Scientific Committee Member of the European Scientific Cooperative on Phytotherapy (ESCOP) since 2010 and has been the co-secretary of this committee since 2016. She is a board member of Hacettepe University MAGUM (Medicinal Chemistry Research and Application Center, 2010-). She was the Head of the Department of Pharmacognosy at Hacettepe University, Faculty of Pharmacy, between 2016-2023. She co-authors two books about phytotherapy, "A'dan Z'ye Tıbbi Bitkiler" and "A'dan Z'ye Tıbbi yağlar ve Aromatik sular". She is the chair of the Division of Pharmaceutical Professional Sciences, at Hacettepe University, Faculty of Pharmacy (2023-).