Visualizing an elephant: Professor Peter J. Houghton

An old story tells of a number of blind people who sought to describe an elephant by feeling different parts of its body. Thus the one who felt the legs stated that an elephant is “like a tree”, the one who felt the trunk said an elephant was “like a snake”, he who felt the tail said an elephant was like “a piece of rope”, feeling the ears resulted in the elephant being described as “a fan”. The picture of the whole was lost in describing only one part. Unfortunately, much ethnopharmacological research utilising in vitro tests makes similar simplistic and reductionist mistakes, and so is deficient in its approach and the deductions made. This paper seeks to highlight some common mistakes that are made and to discuss ways in which these can be avoided or overcome, with examples from recent research in our laboratories. (Houghton et al., 2007)

This quote from Professor Peter Houghton’s work tells us a lot both about a wonderful colleague, the person, but also about our discipline. However, it does not tell us all.

Pharmacognosy in the UK has had a long tradition, but over the last decades it also has had its ups and downs. Peter has been one of the constant elements during these decades and has certainly left some very important marks specifically in pharmacognosy but also in pharmacy in general. And then, in September 2008 he was ordained as a Deacon of the Church of England. At the end of 2008 he formally retired from King’s College London and from many academic obligations and started his many new roles in the Church of England.

He came to London to study pharmacy at what was then Chelsea College (of Pharmacy) and graduated in 1968. Apart from his pre-registration training as a pharmacist, which was carried out in Cambridge, Peter has spent the rest of his working life at what is now King’s College (and on planes to all remoter regions of the world). He was awarded his PhD in 1973 and since 1972 has lectured and undertaken research in pharmacognosy. He was made Professor in Pharmacognosy in 1999 and in December 1994 was designated a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB). He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Peter has published over 250 research papers and reviews on many topics connected with the chemistry and biological activity of plants and their constituents. His most recent research interests include substances from plants of potential use in treating central nervous system degenerative disease, cancer and wound healing. His best known work relates to anti-inflammatory effects of herbal medicines like Nigella sativa (Houghton et al., 1995), in plants with potential wound-healing effects, and the search for novel drug leads to treat Alzheimer’s disease (Howes & Houghton, 2003). One of his core interests has always been the adaptation and validation of biological and biochemical-pharmacological test methods for use with plant extracts (Houghton et al., 2007). He is also interested in the analysis and investigation of herbal medicines such as the widely used medicinal plant Valeriana officinalis (Houghton, 1999). Especially during the early years of his career he focused on the genus Buddleja and has made many important contributions to the genus’s chemistry and the extracts’ in vitro pharmacological effects (Houghton et al., 2003). He is one of the editors of the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, and until recently was Associate Editor of Pharmaceutical Biology. In addition he has served as editorial board member of many other journals including the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, Planta Medica and Phytochemical Analysis. For many years he organized a pharmacognosy workshop at the British Pharmaceutical Conference and has been involved in the organization of many other symposia.

He is a member of several national and international committees dealing with regulatory and scientific aspects of nature-derived drugs and medicines. From 2004 to 2006 he was President of the International Society of Ethnopharmacology, and was the first British member of the Board of the Society for Medicinal Plant Research, one of the largest international societies in the field.

Lastly, coming back to the challenge of visualizing an elephant, this biography is not just about science. Peter has a keen interest in elephants, has for many years collected memorabilia associated with elephants and is a proud wearer of many different ties depicting elephants (and says he has now too many of such memorabilia). Or as he puts it: “I admire the mixture of size with grace in movement and the knowing twinkle in their eyes, but no entirely logical reason! Their only negative point is that they are the symbol of the Republican Party in USA!” (e-mail to MH, 9 February 2009). The quote at the start of this article is a great reminder highlighting his interests in the complexity of science and beyond this – life. In his new role as Deacon of the Church of England and together with his wife he will continue to explore this complexity. And in order to see elephants one has to travel, he and his wife Joan love it and will certainly explore many unknown and known regions of the world, be it mountains or tropical forests or the elephants’ savannahs.

Michael Heinrich

Centre for Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy

The School of Pharmacy

University of London, UK

Editor’s note: Professor Peter Houghton served as Associate Editor for Pharmaceutical Biology (and the former iterations of the journal) over the period of 1992-2008. We acknowledge with great appreciation his indelible influence on the growth and development of this journal.