Dear Editor,
One of Thomas Jefferson’s greatest fascinations was with horticulture. In fact, Jefferson wanted to have botanic gardens on Grounds. Our founder commissioned drafts for this garden in 1820, which were displayed in 2019 at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, in an exhibit called “An Uncultivated Legacy: Jefferson’s Botanical Garden at the University of Virginia.” Though we have some gardens on Grounds, his dream has still not yet come to fruition.
If you visit Monticello, you can see the plants he cultivated and lovingly wrote about in his journals, many of which are medicinal herbs. Therefore, we should try to make his dream come true today, in a way which would be highly beneficial to the School of Medicine.
I believe that the School of Medicine would do well to have a medicinal herb garden on Grounds, such as those of Cornell University, Oxford University, Harvard University and Cambridge University, even if it is not the same size as these other gardens. These are some of the top medical schools, with rankings that the University’s School of Medicine aspires to, and they take the study and cultivation of medicinal herbs seriously, with formidable gardens that are simultaneously educational and therapeutic.
This is not without reason — a lot of medications that students will prescribe contain compounds from herbs. For example, heart medicines contain polysulfides derived from garlic. Oxford University highlights that information in its garden, with placards about various plants’ usages in modern medicine. The University could do the same.
According to the World Health Organization, around 40 percent of pharmaceutical products today are drawn from medicinal herbs. 10 percent of the WHO’s list of 250 most basic and essential drugs are derived exclusively from plants. Cornell Health is very involved with medicinal herbs, even prescribing them at their pharmacy. They work with local farms to source and grow herbs, and the pharmacies have trained herbalists who help with this. Cornell Health also has excellent online courses for certification for using medicinal plants — I love their model of education, community outreach and its benefit for patients.
Blandy Experimental farm is a wonderful addition in this regard, but it is hours away, and it seems like the University community could do well with more gardens, besides Monticello and the student garden near O’Hill. I do love the gardens around the Lawn, which feature small smatterings of herbs, but something more extensive and scientific would be of great benefit to Grounds.
Jane Mattimoe is a Class of 2012 alumna of the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.
The opinions expressed in this letter-to-the-editor are not necessarily those of The Cavalier Daily. The guest letter represents the views of the columnist alone.
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