Professor Donal O’Mathuna came to the States for advanced studies and decided to stay. His specialty is Pharmacognacy; the development of modern drugs from natural sources, usually traditional herbal remedies. He’s also compiled extensive data concerning some of the more common alternative therapies.

He notes, "In Ireland, like much of Europe, an interest in herbs has never totally faded away from conventional medicine like it seems to have over here in the U.S. And so, within pharmacy school, we had several courses on herbal medicine that I took.

The approach and the research there of trying to identify the active ingredients and find ways to provide them in pure form was just very appealing to me. It was a process of, in many ways, solving puzzles, which I really like to do; where you figure out how to purify the material, and then through a variety of instruments, find ways to identify exactly what is causing the effect.

So that was just very intriguing to me. I did a project as a senior in the pharmacy school, a research project, in that area, and at that point, decided this is the sort of research I’d like to spend several years on."

One of the herbal remedies Dr. O’Mathuna reviewed has been much in the news lately. St. John’s Wort is often recommended for mild depression.

"That’s something where the tests have been done where they have compared, say St. John’s Wort and some of the more common prescription drugs like Prozac," Dr. O’Mathuna says. "Several trials have found that St. John’s Wort is just as effective as some of the prescription drugs, and also that it does have fewer side effects than the prescription drugs. So here’s a herb that really lives up to some of the claims that you often hear about herbs that they are effective and have fewer side effects, and also tend to be cheaper that the prescription drugs."

On the down side St. John’s Wart tends to interact badly with other medications and should never be taken without first consulting a physician or pharmacist. The more research Dr. O’Mathuna does, the more questions he and his colleagues have about the plants they study.

"One of the things that baffles botanists is why plants produce all of these products within them that are these natural products that we then use as drugs. One of the things that is really baffling is that there appears to be no good reason for the plants to make these products, and so for example, you think of the foxglove plant, which was the source of digitalis. Digitalis remains a very important drug in treating heart disease. And yet, nobody can figure out any reason why this foxglove plant makes the product for itself. Never mind why it has it for the benefit of any other species that might happen to graze on the foxglove. It was originally found because of the damage that it did to the sheep that would graze on that in Britain.

And so here, I think, from a purely scientific model, and especially from an evolutionary model, there is no reason to understand why these things are in the plants. And yet, when you think about creation as God’s provision for us, then all of a sudden, we have something that makes sense.

God in his wisdom, put these products into various plants, knowing that we were going to live in a fallen world, and that, in living here, we were going to need medicines to help us with the ailments that we have and the diseases and the healing that we need.

So we see now, throughout the world, that plants have these chemicals within them, which are a huge provision for us as humans. I see it as part of God’s sovereign care of us. He designed these plants to have these materials in there, and that, down through the years, he’s lead us to various discoveries to come to understand what those are and to be able to benefit from their healing properties."

Along with a colleague, well known TV physician Walt Larimore, Dr. O’Mathuna has written a book on the subject titled: Alternative Medicine, A Christian Handbook. You can purchase Dr. O’Mathuna’s book through your favorite online bookstore. The title once again is Alternative Medicines; A Christian Handbook. Dr. Donal O’Mathuna, looking for evidence of God’s creative genius at work in the world around us.