Unlocking Nature’s Pharmacy: Building the future on our past

15th March 2023

‘Unlocking Nature’s Pharmacy from Bogland Species (UNPBS)’ is an innovative, ground-breaking project, hosted at the NatPro Centre, set to harness the untapped therapeutic and commercial use of native Irish bogland plants, distinctive bogland waters and the microbiome of unique bogland species. An output of the project was the creation of the animated video, ‘Unlocking Nature’s Pharmacy: Building the future on our past’, created by Catherine Keenan, TCD medical student.

The piece focuses on valorising Irish traditional knowledge and healing remedies using native plants as a tool for future discovery. It explores the National Folklore Collection and specifically the School’s Manuscript Collection (SMC). The SMC is a compilation of folklore gathered by school children in Ireland in the 1930’s, stored in handwritten copybooks, and now digitised and available globally at www.duchas.ie.  The national Folklore collection has been inscribed into the UNESCO memory of the World Register.

Through this project, NatPro explores Irish diversity and, as ‘medicine’s hunters’, revive pieces of Irish history and culture to uncover new leads for drug discovery and development. The animation portrays this important story.

We are thrilled with the wonderful video that Catherine has created and feel that it truly explains one of the approaches we have employed in the UNPBS Project.

Professor Helen Sheridan, Professor in Pharmacognosy and Natural Product Chemistry and Academic Director of NatPro, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Trinity College Dublin.

The Peatlands, or Bogs of Ireland, constitute a unique national resource. As a result of evolution in these environments, they have become custodians of a varied and rare global biodiversity that has accumulated over many millions of years. In our laboratories at NatPro, we are identifying and characterising bio-actives, undertaking chemical and biological analyses to identify potential therapeutics and commercially viable species, extracts and lead molecules.

Find out more about the ‘Unlocking Nature’s Pharmacy from Bogland Species’ here