Dr. James Duke is an ethnobotanist with a Ph.D. in botany from UNC, served with Missouri Botanical Garden in his earlier years, and for over 3 decades in several posts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He was chief of the Medicinal Plant Resources Laboratory and chief of the USDA’s Economic Botany Lab. One of the most frequented parts of the USDA website is the ethnobotanical and phytochemical database he created before retiring.

Dr. Duke has written more than 30 books including the best selling Green Pharmacy, Dr. Duke’s Essential Herbs, Herbs of the Bible, Handbook of Edible Weeds, Duke’s Handbook of Medicinal Plants of Latin America, and Peterson’s Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America. He’s also spent years exploring the ecology and culture of the Amazon Rain Forest.

Dr. Duke is currently updating the third edition of Peterson’s guide. He mainly cares takes the Green Farmacy Garden with his wife Peggy and volunteers.

In this episode of HerbMentor Radio, Jim covers herbs of the Bible in the midst of other fun stuff, such as a few bluegrass songs Jim wrote for his cd, Herbalbum.

Jim’s books are available at your favorite online and real-life book stores. At this time, Jim’s music cd is not available, but as he said in the interview, he wants to re-release it.

You can visit Jim in person and on the web at https://thegreenfarmacygarden.com