Academic Lecture Notice: Ethnobotany of the Thai Flora
Lecture Information
Topic：Ethnobotany of the Thai Flora
Speaker：Prof. Henrik Balslev
Time: 09:20 – 10:00, July 13, 2026
Venue：Lecture Hall, 1st Floor, Building 15, Kunming Institute of Botany
About the speaker
Prof. Henrik Balslev is a Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, and Professor Emeritus at Aarhus University. He also serves as a committee member and editorial board member for multiple international academic organizations and journals.
Prof. Balslev has long devoted himself to plant taxonomy, ecology, ethnobotany and applied botany, with outstanding achievements particularly in tropical palm flora and Thai ethnobotanical research. Over an academic career spanning more than 40 years, he has published hundreds of peer-reviewed papers and authored over 10 monographs. He has contributed to landmark floras including Flora of Ecuador and Flora of Thailand. His publications have accumulated more than 24,000 total citations, with an h-index of 78 and an i10-index of 289. His research has received funding from numerous bodies including the Danish Council for Independent Research, the European Union, Danish International Development Agency, and the United States National Science Foundation. In recognition of his distinguished contributions to plant taxonomy, eight plant species have been named after him.
Lecture Overview
Ethnobotany has evolved through three phases: descriptive documentation, quantitative analysis, and research centered on sustainable development goals. As a field-oriented discipline, researchers collect data via field observations and structured interviews, documenting demographic information of informants alongside detailed plant utilization records (including applications, utilized plant parts, and preparation methods), supported by voucher specimens. All data are organized under the fundamental unit of "use record", facilitating cross-population and cross-regional comparative research.
Traditional medicinal plant knowledge represents a vital resource for human disease treatment. Many traditional herbal formulations contain phytochemicals with pharmacological activity. Such knowledge provides valuable leads for the modern pharmaceutical industry to discover bioactive compounds, substantially shortening R&D cycles and reducing costs for drug discovery.
In this lecture, Prof. Balslev will draw on his decades of ethnobotanical research experience in Thailand to share insights from his studies on Thai traditional medicines, highlighting the vital role of ethnobotany in unlocking traditional knowledge, conserving biodiversity, and driving new drug discovery.
All students and researchers are warmly welcome to attend!