David Picking

• PhD, Post Grad. Dip., Grad. Dip., BSc (Hons)
• Senior Research Fellow at University of the West Indies

Jamaica’s geographic location and place in modern history has made the country a nest for the development of rich and diversely informed cultural traditions and beliefs, and these traditions continue to influence attitudes toward health in Jamaican society today. Many Jamaican people rely on traditional knowledge, unique dietary practices, and the...

We are delighted to bring a new edition of this book to a wider audience. Our book has grown from a community guide to a publication that will hopefully speak to a diverse group of worldwide readers. In this second edition, we have expanded the introduction, revised the botanical descriptions, added common plant names and scientific synonyms from t...

Jamaican root tonics are fermented beverages that consist of multiple plants, including wild-harvested species. These beverages remain understudied in the literature, and information about their cultural significance and origin is especially lacking. We expanded our ethnobotanical focus beyond documenting plant species and their uses, to record ora...

Common names in Jamaica: Rice and peas , bees bush

Common names in Jamaica: Cassava marble , wild cassava

Common names in Jamaica: Coconut , dreadnut

Synonyms: Myrtus pimenta L., Myrtus dioica L., Pimenta officinalis Lindl. (Adams, 1972)

Synonyms: Sitodium altile Parkinson ex F.A.Zorn, Artocarpus communis J.R.Forst. & G.Forst., Artocarpus incisus (Thunb.) L.f. (Adams, 1972)

Synonyms: Kalanchoe pinnata (Lam.) Pers., Cotyledon pinnata Lam. (Adams, 1972)

Common names in Jamaica: Castor oil , oil nut , whole wife , catcus

Common names in Jamaica: Calabash , pakee, gourdy

Synonyms: Aloe barbadensis Mill., Aloe vulgaris Lam., Aloe perfoliata var. vera L. (Adams, 1972)

Common name in Jamaica: Soursop

Synonyms: Cassia occidentalis L., Ditramexa occidentalis Britton & Rose, Ditremexa occidentalis (L.) Britton & Wilson (Adams, 1972)

Common name in Jamaica: Ginger

Common names in Jamaica: Ramgoat regular , ramgoat dashalong

Common names in Jamaica: Holy thistle , blessed thistle

Synonyms: Eupatorium odoratum L., Osmia odorata (L.) Sch.Bip. (Adams, 1972)

Synonym: Chenopodium ambrosioides L. (Adams, 1972)

Common name in Jamaica: Cerasee

Synonym: Andropogon citratus DC. (Adams, 1972)

Common names in Jamaica: Noni , hog apple , duppy soursop

Synonyms: Satureja brownei (Sw.) Briq., Thymus brownei Sw., Micromeria brownei (Sw.) Benth. (Adams, 1972)

Common names in Jamaica: Fitweed, spiritweed

Synonyms: Cassia alata L., Herpetica alata (L.) Raf. (Adams, 1972)

Synonym: Citrus × vulgaris Risso (Adams, 1972)

Common names in Jamaica: Guinea henweed, guinea hen weed, guinea hen

Synonym: Solanum ficifolium Ortega (Adams, 1972)

A geographically diverse group of 29 ethnobiologists addresses three common themes in response to the COVID-19 global health crisis: impact on local communities, future interactions between researchers and communities, and new (or renewed) conceptual and/or applied research priorities for ethnobiology.

Research in Jamaica reports prevalence rates for medicinal plant use of 73%, with 27% concomitant use with pharmaceutical drugs, highlighting the importance of assessing potential plant-drug interactions in a region where little such work has been undertaken to date. This in vitro study aimed to undertake an initial assessment of the potential inhi...

In Jamaica, like elsewhere in the Caribbean, traditional and local knowledge systems represent a blend of knowledge, worldviews, beliefs, skills, and practices derived from Amerindian, European, African, and other cultural groups. Through a process called creolization, new and unique knowledge systems were developed around Old and New World plant s...

Jamaica’s national motto ‘Out of Many, One People’ reflects the country’s multiracial past and the historic and ongoing influences that many cultures have had on the country’s traditional knowledge systems (TKS) and traditional medicine (TM). This review explores Jamaican TKS and TM, from the earliest indigenous peoples to their use today. Historic...

Antigonon leptopus is a smothering, habitat-transforming vine with showy pink flowers. Originating in Mexico, it is now widespread or invasive on tropical islands around the world, including the West Indies, as a consequence of active human dispersal and disturbance. Using mixed methods research, we assessed the species’ (1) historical geographic s...

Understanding the potential for adverse drug reactions (ADRs), from herb-drug interactions, is a key aspect of medicinal plant safety, with particular relevance for public health in countries where medicinal plant use is highly prevalent. We undertook an in-depth assessment of extracts of Hyptis verticillata Jacq., via its impact on activities of k...

s. PHYTOPHARM 2017 54 Obzory po kliniceskoj farmacologii i lekarstvennoj terapii [Reviews of clinical pharmacology and drug therapy] vol. 15/2017/supplement 1 Understanding the potential for adverse drug reactions (ADRs), resulting from plant-drug interactions, is a key aspect of medicinal plant safety. The aim of this study was to provide an in-de...

This chapter provides an overview of the regulations applicable to commercial medicinal plant products from a global perspective. It explores the underlying reasons for regulation, including the prevalence of medicinal plant use in developing countries, the rapidly growing demand for plant-based medicinal products in more developed countries, and t...

The pharmacokinetics of a compound is dependent upon its physicochemical properties, intrinsic clearance, and apparent volume of distribution, as well as its interaction with various tissue types. As well as determining safety and efficacy, pharmacokinetic studies serve as a means of describing comparisons between the disposition of formulations an...

This book highlights the results from over a year of ethnobotanical research in a rural and an urban community in Jamaica, where we interviewed more than 100 people who use medicinal plants for healthcare. The goal of this research was to better understand patterns of medicinal plant knowledge, and to find out which plants are used in consensus by...

The work described in this paper aimed to study the prevalence of herbal medicine use in treating illness and concomitant use with pharmaceutical medicines in Jamaica. A survey using a structured questionnaire was administered by a trained interviewer to randomly selected adults in systematically selected households within randomly selected urban a...

The Caribbean hosted 18,081,199 visitors in 2007, and this figure does not include those who took vacations within their own islands. For Jamaica, more visitors came in 2007 than there were residents. While a few of these trips are taken for business, most are taken for pleasure. In fact, tourism accounts for over 21 per cent of all Caribbean capit...