JAASP

http://www.aaspjournal.org

Journal of Asian Association of Schools of Pharmacy 2020; 9: 44–52© 2020 The Asian Association of Schools of Pharmacy

Review

Role of medicinal plant gardens in pharmaceutical science education
and research: An overview of medicinal plant garden at Kumamoto
University, Japan
Hari Prasad Devkota1,2,* and Masato Watanabe1
1 Global Research Center for Natural Resources Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan
2 Program for Leading Graduate Schools, Health life Sciences: Interdisciplinary and Glocal Oriented (HIGO) Program, Kumamoto
University, Kumamoto, Japan

Received July 15, 2020
Revised August 29, 2020
Accepted September 17, 2020
* Corresponding author
Global Research Center for Natural
Resources Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences,
Kumamoto University, 5-1 Oe-honmachi,
Chuo-ku, Kumamoto 862-0973, Japan
Email: devkotah@kumamoto-u.ac.jp

ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants have played an important role in human healthcare as the essential
ingredients of traditional medicines for thousands of years. Botanical gardens worldwide
play a crucial role in the conservation, cultivation and utilization of plant species, andresearch activities related to ecology, taxonomy, systematics, biotechnology, etc. Medicinal
plant gardens have played a significant role in education and research of plant species used
for medicinal purposes. Botanical gardens and medicinal plant gardens are also actively
involved in organizing of educational programs/events to students and the general public.
This article will provide an overview of the educational and research activities of Medicinal
Plant Garden at the School of Pharmacy, Kumamoto University, Japan.
Key words: Pharmacy education, medicinal plants garden, medicinal plants, herbal
medicine, research

1. Introductionunsustainable collection and trade coupled with land use andsociocultural changes.
Botanical gardens worldwide play an important role in theconservation, cultivation and utilization of plant species
along with research activities related to ecology, taxonomy,
systematics, biotechnology, etc. (Chen and Sun, 2018; GaioOliveira et al., 2017; He and Chen, 2012; Heywood, 2017;
Mounce et al., 2017). Botanical gardens also play a central
role in citizen science programs and science communication
through educational activities, observational tours andorganizing various events (Chen and Sun, 2018). It isestimated that there are about 2500 botanical gardens aroundthe world and these gardens collectively cultivate more than
6 million plants belonging to about 80,000 species (Chen andSun, 2018). Such ex-situ cultivation activities of botanicalgardens will be of increasing importance in future withdeclining biodiversity and effects of global warming andclimate change.
Medicinal plant gardens are primarily focused on theconservation, cultivation, research and educational activities
related to plant species known for medicinal purposes.
However, these gardens also equally provide services related
to other plant species whose primary use is not for therapeutic
practice. In this article, we aim to provide a comprehensive

Medicinal plants have played an important role in humanhealthcare as the essential ingredients of traditional
medicines for thousands of years. It is reported that more than
80% of the world population still relies on medicinal plants
as a source of primary healthcare (Fitzgerald et al., 2019;
Kunwar and Bussmann, 2008). Natural products isolated
from medicinal plants have also played an important role asa source of modern drug discovery and development(Atanasov et al., 2015; Newman and Cragg, 2020). Medicinal
and aromatic plants are widely used as foods, spices, andalso used in cosmetics, aroma, perfumes. Phytochemicals
isolated from plants have more extensive applications asfood preservatives, colourants, sweeteners, etc. (Negi, 2012;
Pawar et al., 2013; Sarkic and Stappen, 2018; Voon et al.,2012). Out of more than 460,000 plant species worldwide, atleast 28,187 plants species were documented to be used for
medicinal purposes (Willis, 2017). Out of these medicinal
plants, only 4,478 were mentioned in regulatory publications(Willis, 2017). However, with the decreasing number ofplants worldwide due to climate change and anthropogenic
disturbances, many medicinal plants are on the verge ofextinction. The extinction of plants was also compounded by

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JAASP 2020; 9: 44–52

et Zucc. (“Sanshuyu”), Vitex negundo L. var. cannabifolia(Siebold et Zucc.) Hand.-Mazz. (“Ninjinboku”), Lindera
aggregata (Sims) Kosterm. (“Tendaiuyaku”) and Koelreuteria
paniculata Laxm. (“Mokugenji”) (Figure 2) were transferredfrom the historical medicinal plant garden, ‘Banjien’.
‘Banjien’ was founded in 1756 by Lord Hosokawa of the
Higo Province and it is referred to as the origin of the
School of Pharmacy (https://ewww.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/en/
about/history/outline/). After the formation of Kumamoto
University in 1949, the medicinal plant garden is serving as acenter of excellence for education and research activities
related to medicinal plants at Kumamoto University. From
April 2019, it has been affiliated to the Global Center for
Natural Resources Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences,
Kumamoto University. The Director of Global Center foroutline of the activities of Medicinal Plant Garden at the
School of Pharmacy, Kumamoto University, Japan related topharmaceutical science education and research and its
implications for conservation of medicinal plants.

2. History and current status of medicinal plantgarden at Kumamoto University
Medicinal Plant Garden (Figure 1) currently situatedinside the School of Pharmacy at Kumamoto University wasestablished in 1927 AD as the Medicinal Plant Garden of
Kumamoto Pharmaceutical College (established in 1885), thepredecessor of the current School of Pharmacy. However, theactual history of the garden dates back to more than 260 years
as five medicinal tree species, i.e. Crataegus cuneata Siebold
et Zucc. (“Sanzashi” in Japanese), Cornus officinalis Siebold

Figure 1. School of Pharmacy and Medicinal Plant Garden along with some photographs of different zones in the garden.

Figure 2. Photographs of five medicinal plant species obtained from historical “Banjien.”

45

Hari Prasad Devkota et al.

Figure 3. An example of medicinal plant label for Curcuma longa L. (a) and the page for it in Medicinal Plant Database (b) that is accessibleby scanning the QR code in label.

named as “Medicinal Plant Park Initiative” has been started
which aims to convert the whole area of School of Pharmacy
into medicinal plant park that can be freely used by thegeneral public. Interested people can also make donations to
the “Medicinal Plant Park Initiative” through Kumamoto
University Fund, which is utilized for the maintenance of thegarden. One output of this initiative was the publication of “A
Guidebook of Medicinal Plant Garden” in 2018 which covers
the general information about medicinal plants, the history
and organization of medicinal plant garden and detailed
information about 360 medicinal plants (Watanabe et al.,2018a).

Natural Resources Sciences also serves as the Director of
Medicinal Plant Garden. The overall activities related to plant
conservation and cultivation are managed by two Technical
Officers. Educational and research activities of the garden aresupported by other academic and technical staffs of the
University.
About 1500 plant species are cultivated in the exhibition
garden, medicinal tree garden and other 10 different
cultivation areas. It covers an area of more than 6000 m2.
One greenhouse (59 m2) and two small separate green
conservatories for plants of Zingiberaceae family and ferns
are also located inside the garden. Medicinal and other plants
are cultivated in different zones based on their nature (aquaticplants, Citrus plants, medicinal trees, plants used in folk
medicines, etc.).
More than 600 medicinal plants have been appropriately
labelled with their family name, Japanese name, scientificname, English name, plant parts used as a medicine,
medicinal uses, photos and structures of main chemical
constituents. An example of the label can be found in Figure
3a. Each label also contains an individual QR code which
when scanned will direct to the individual plant informationof the Kumamoto University Medicinal Plant Garden
Database (http://www.pharm.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/yakusodb/),that provides the detailed information on each medicinal
plant (Figure 3b). This database is currently available only inJapanese language and English version is now underpreparation.
Medicinal Plant Garden is open to the students, the generalpublic and any person interested to visit at any time.
Currently, there is are no gates or any other physical barriers,
so that interested people can come and make the observation
at any time point of the year. From 2015, a new initiative,

3. Conservation and cultivation of medicinal plants
used in Kampo medicines, folk medicines and otherrare and endangered plants
Kampo medicines, sometimes also referred to as Japanesetraditional medicines is an integral part of the healthcare
system in Japan (Arai and Kawahara, 2019; Maegawa et al.,2014; Motoo et al., 2009). Kampo medicine formulations
usually contain the standard mixtures of few to tens of crude
drugs originated from the plant, animal or mineral sources.
They are officially approved, and 148 Kampo are covered by
the National Health Insurance System of Japan, and many arealso sold as over-the-counter (OTC) medicines. According toArai and Kawahara (2019), the market of Kampo medicines
in Japan accounted for about 2.5% of the total pharmaceuticalmarket. The Japanese Pharmacopoeia covers many crude
drugs used in Kampo formulations along with their different
forms (e.g. powders, extracts) and few most common
Kampo formulations (Kameyama et al. 2019; The Ministryof Health Labor and Welfare of Japan, 2016). Along with the
Kampo formulations, medicinal plant-based folk medicines46

JAASP 2020; 9: 44–52

Figure 4. Some examples of rare and endangered plants cultivated in Medicinal Plant Garden.

2020; Watanabe et al., 2018b). Various activities related tothe conservation and documentation of traditional knowledge
about medicinal plants are also performed. For example,
starch from the roots of Pueraria lobata (Willd.) Ohwi root(known as Kudzu-denpun in Japanese) was traditionally used
as food and also as an ingredient in the preparation of
medicines and snacks in Japan. However, as the traditional
process is not commonly used nowadays, such knowledge isdeclining. Thus, by performing the field works and practicealong with students, a complete step-by-step process was
documented and reported (Watanabe et al., 2018c).

(“Minkan-yaku” in Japanese), herbal products, functional
foods and food supplements are also quite popular among
Japanese people and are widely available in the market.
Kumamoto University Medicinal Plant Garden has a plan
to collect and cultivate as many medicinal plants as possiblethat are included as biological sources for the crude drugs
covered in Japanese Pharmacopoeia. As of July 2020, among
many medicinal plants cultivated in garden, 180 medicinal
plants are those which are listed as biological sources forcollectively 148 plant-based crude drugs included in JapanesePharmacopoeia. This makes the current coverage about
90% for the plant-based crude drugs included in JapanesePharmacopoeia.
Medicinal Plant Garden at Kumamoto University is
selected as one of the leading center for the conservation ofrare and endangered plants by the Japan Association of
Botanical Gardens (JABG) in 2006. Currently, about 50 suchrare plant species are conserved inside garden. Few examples
are Ottelia alismoides (L.) Pers., Tribulus terrestris L.,
Lithospermum murasaki Siebold, Mucuna sempervirens
Hemsl., Lychnis sieboldii Van Houtte, Rotala rotundifolia(Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb.) Koehne, Sparganium erectum L.,
Euryale ferox Salisb., and Acer tataricum L. subsp. aidzuense(Franch.) P.C.de Jongetc. (Figure 4). Some of these medicinal
plant seeds and seedlings are shared among other botanicalgardens in Japan as part of activities of JABG.
Various field research for rare and endangered plants arealso performed on a regular basis. For example, Acer
tataricum subsp. aidzuense was rediscovered in Kumamoto
after 30 years (Watanabe et al., 2014; Watanabe and Devkota,2017). Similar research is also performed for many otherplants, including medicinal and useful ferns (Nakato et al.,

4. Contribution in Pharmacy education
In 2006, the undergraduate clinical pharmacy curriculumin Japan was extended from four years to six years programfor students who want to appear in National License
Examination (Kubota et al., 2018). Thus, current
undergraduate pharmacy education is divided into two types,a) 6 year undergraduate clinical pharmacy course (including
22 weeks internships in a community pharmacy and ahospital pharmacy in fifth year) and b) 4 year undergraduate
pharmaceutical sciences course (Okuda 2015; Kubota et al.
2018). Students completing 4 year course do not participate
in internships in pharmacies and cannot participate in
National License Examination in general. In graduate schools,
students who completed 6 year course can directly enroll into
4 year doctoral course and students who completed 4 year
course can enroll into 2 year master course plus 3 year
doctoral course (Okuda, 2015).
The English version of the Model Core Curriculum for
Pharmaceutical Education for 6 year course can be accessedfrom the website of The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan47

Hari Prasad Devkota et al.

Figure 5. Events for the general public and students.

tours and related events are organized throughout the year
targeted for the general public. From 2003 to 2015, Medicinal
Plant Garden Observation Tour was organized once in amonth, where about 30–40 people (pharmacists, students,
general public) joined each time. From 2016, these eventswere reorganized and a 3 hours’ event of combined medicinal
plant seminar and observation tour is organized 4 times a year.
In average, about 50 people of different age group join these
events (Figure 5).
School of Pharmacy at Kumamoto University started“Medicinal Plant Park Initiative” in FY 2015 to promotebetter utilization of Medicinal Plant Garden. To expand thisinitiative to local communities in Kumamoto Prefecture, acommunity-based project “Medicinal Herb Caravan” wasstarted to promote the use of local herbs for beneficial healtheffects and product development using them through proper
conservation, cultivation and utilization. In the initial phase,
programs such as medicinal plant survey, public lectures,
observational tours and medicinal herb-based food recipe
design in Yamato Town, Kamimasiki Gun and MinamiOguni Town, Aso Gun were organized in collaboration with
Local Woman Association and local enterprises. Such events
are now expanded to other communities.
From 2018, a new event targeted for licensed pharmacists
termed as “Kampo Forum” was started in collaboration withKumamoto Kampo Research Association. In this event,pharmacists who are interested in Kampo medicine canparticipate and listen to the lectures provided by experienced
physicians, pharmacists and other professionals.
Events targeted for elementary school, junior high schooland high school students, are also organized on a regular basis
inside the pharmacy campus/medicinal plant garden or as partof other events in different schools/communities. In such
events, the importance of medicinal plants, their conservation,(https://www.pharm.or.jp/eng/curriculum.html). The Model
Core Curriculum includes the major part (70%) of thepharmacy curriculum that every pharmacy schools in Japan
should follow and the rest 30% of the curriculum can be
designed by each pharmacy school. It includes course related
to medicinal plants such as Pharmacognosy (Naturally
Derived Drugs) and Kampo Medicine.
In Japan, Schools of Pharmacy must have Medicinal Plant
Garden as one of the facilities (https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chousa/koutou/053/gijiroku/__icsFiles/afieldfil
e/2012/10/30/1325943_02_3_1.pdf). At Kumamoto University School of Pharmacy, Medicinal Plant Garden is actively
involved in the education of medicinal plants, crude drugs,
Kampo medicine and natural products to undergraduate andgradute course students. As part of Pharmaceutical Chemistry
Practical, students are required to participate in medicinal
plant garden observation tour, sketching medicinal plants,
preparation of Kampo formulations and basic phytochemical
techniques, among others. As the garden is located inside the
School of Pharmacy, students can visit it anytime if they areinterested and can learn about medicinal plants through thespecified labels, handbooks and by discussing with academic
and technical staffs. From the last few years, short seminars
for undergraduate and graduate students (Figure 5) areorganized almost every Friday, in which, about 2 medicinal
plants flowering during that particular period are explained indetail.

5. Seminars/events for the general public andpharmacists
University-community collaboration is essential for theproper outcome of community-based projects to improve theregional economy through locally based product development
and commercialization. Various seminars, plants observation

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Figure 6. Activities related to Medicinal Herb Village Project of Hyuga City

Figure 7. Kawachi Satellite Farm of Kumamoto University, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

was established at the orchard of the company for theutilization of medicinal plants for further research (Figure 7).
One of the outputs of this project was the chemical analysis
and biological activity analysis of flowers of Satsuma
mandarin (Citrus unshiu (Yu.Tanaka ex Swingle) Marcow.)(Adhikari-Devkota et al., 2019a).

cultivation and impact on human health are explained to theyoung students.

6. Collaboration with local governments andcompanies
Medicinal Plant Garden as an affiliated facility of the
School of Pharmacy is also involved in collaboration withlocal governments, communities and enterprises. For
example, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed
between Hyuga city, Miyazaki Prefecture and School of
Pharmacy, Kumamoto University for a project called“Medicinal Herb Village Project” funded by Hyuga city.
School of Pharmacy provided technical support for the
project through plant cultivation, organizing different events
such as seminars and observation tours (Figure 6),
formulation of herbal products, etc. Citrus ‘Hebesu’, a local
cultivar of Citrus plant in Hyuga city was also further
analyzed for its chemical constituents and biologicalactivities at Kumamoto University as a part of the project(Adhikari-Devkota et al., 2019b; Miyashita et al., 2018).
Medicinal Plant Garden has also collaborated with many
local enterprises. For example, in collaboration with Orange
Blossom Co., Ltd., Kawachi, Kumamoto, a satellite garden

7. Contribution to medicinal plant research/
International collaborations
Medicinal Plant Garden has supported research activities
inside Kumamoto University and outside to different researchorganizations/universities by sharing the samples of
medicinal plants and technical support/collaborations. A lab
associated with the garden has also devoted its research
activities to the elucidation of chemical constituents andevaluation of biological activities of materials from medicinal
plants, genetic analysis and studies related to ecology andconservation. In recent years, many plants cultivated inside
the garden have been utilized for scientific research(Chaudhary et al., 2019; Devkota et al., 2015, 2019).
Academic and technical staffs associated with Medicinal
Plant Garden have also contributed to the scientific study of
medicinal plants of many countries in collaboration with49

Hari Prasad Devkota et al.

Figure 8. Museum of Traditional Medicines at the School of Pharmacy, Kumamoto University.

9. Conclusions

domestic research organizations in Japan and research
institutes/universities in respective countries. From 2002,
Medicinal Plant Garden has contributed to the research of
Nepalese medicinal plants through joint field surveys,
documentation of medicinal plants (Adhikari et al., 2019),
publication of handbooks (Watanabe et al., 2005, 2013) andchemical and biological analyses of various medicinal plants(Adhikari et al., 2016; Cong et al., 2015; Devkota et al.,2010a, b, 2012a, b, 2013a, b, 2014, 2018; Hori et al., 2018;
Joshi et al., 2013, 2014a, b, 2015). In the recent years, various
medicinal plants from other Asian countries such as
Bangladesh (Hassan et al., 2019), Bhutan (Iwashina et al.,2019), Myanmar (Zar Wynn Myint et al., 2019) and Africancountries such as Sudan and Egypt (Dirar et al., 2019a, c, b;
Elbashir et al., 2018) are also studied for their chemical
constituents and biological activities in collaboration with
universities/research institutions in these countries and Japan.
Such collaborations are now being expanded to othercountries for strengthening scientific research on traditional
medicines and medicinal plants.

Medicinal plant gardens are integral parts of the School of
Pharmacy facilities to teach about the various aspects ofmedicinal plants in human healthcare. The general public canalso get benefited from the medicinal plant gardens byparticipating in various educational and training events/
activities. Medicinal Plant Garden of School of Pharmacy,
Kumamoto University has contributed to the various aspectsof pharmaceutical science education and research not only inJapan but also in foreign countries. In future, wide sharing of
scientific knowledge among multiple stakeholders could
generate larger stewardship for conservation of traditional
knowledge and medicinal plants. Medicinal plant gardens areappropriate tools for conservation of medicinal plants andpreservation of traditional knowledge that help collaborate
more local communities, academicians, students, researchersand pharmacists for generating greater conservation benefits
and promote science communication.

Acknowledgement
Authors are grateful to Prof. Dr. Hirofumi Kai (Dean,
School of Pharmacy), Prof. Dr. Shogo Misumi (Director,
Global Center for Natural Resources Sciences) and Prof. Dr.
Shoji Yahara and Prof. Dr. Takashi Watanabe (former
Directors of Medicinal Plant Garden) for their continuous
guidance and support.

8. Museum of Traditional Medicines
A Museum of Traditional Medicines has also been
established inside the School of Pharmacy (Figure 8). Here,plant-based crude drugs used in various traditional medicines
all over the world are collected and displayed. The current
collection has different forms of more than 100 crude drugs
used in Kampo medicines and other crude drugs commonlyused in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia andSudan. In collaboration with the local authorities in different
countries, the Museum collection is being expanded. Students
and the general public can visit the museum and learn about
various traditional medicines of the world through guided
tours and available information booklets, posters and videos.

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