Ben-Erik van Wyk

Last updated
Professor

Ben-Erik van Wyk

FAAS
BenErikVanWykFotoThalerTamas.JPG
Born (1956-12-27) December 27, 1956 (age 67)
Bellville, South Africa
Education Stellenbosch University (BSc, MSc)
University of Cape Town (PhD)
Known for Hypocalypteae, Leobordea platycarpa, Stirtonanthus, Leobordea, Wiborgiella, Choritaenia
Scientific career
Fields Botany
Traditional African medicine
Taxonomy
Chemotaxonomy
Ethnobotany
Institutions University of Johannesburg
Rand Afrikaans University
Thesis A taxonomic study of the genus Lotononis (DC.) Eckl. & Zeyh.(Fabzceae, Crotalarieae)  (1989)
Website http://www.ben-erikvanwyk.com/

Ben-Erik van Wyk FAAS (born 27 December 1956 in Bellville) is a South African professor of indigenous botany and traditional African medicine at the University of Johannesburg.

Contents

Early life and education

Ben-Erik van Wyk was born on 27 December 1956 in Bellville, South Africa. [1] In 1979, he received a Bachelor of Science from Stellenbosch University in Forestry and Nature Conservation. In 1983, he graduated cum laude with a Master of Science. In 1989, he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Cape Town. [2] [3] [4]

Career and research

Since 1984, Van Wyk has been teaching at the Rand Afrikaans University, where he has been a professor since 1990. Since 2005, he has been a professor at the Department of Botany and Plant Biotechnology, University of Johannesburg, where the Rand Afrikaans University has been absorbed. [5] [6] [4]

Van Wyk researches African plant plant classification (taxonomy [7] and chemotaxonomy [8] ) particularly for Apiaceae, [9] Fabaceae, [10] Aloe , [11] [12] and Asphodelaceae. [13] [14] In addition, he focuses on medicinal plants and ethnobotany, [15] [16] including the ethnobotany of Khoisan [17] and Afrikaners from the Western Cape. [15] [18] He is also involved in quality control and product development of medicinal plant products and crop development. [19] [20] [21] [22]

Through 600 vibrant photographs of more than 120 distinct culinary herbs, spices, and flavourings that Van Wyk has collected from the distant reaches; his books [23] transport us back to the earliest uses of spices by ancient civilisations and lead us on a journey of discovery from Ethiopia to China. [24] [25] [26]

Van Wyk is a member of several organizations, including the Aloe Council of South Africa (Chair), the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, the Botanical Society of America, the Indigenous Plant Use Forum (Chair since 1996), [27] the Association for African Medicinal Plant Standards, Briza Publications CC, and the Presidential Task Team on African Traditional Medicine. [28] [29] [30] He is a Member of the Editorial Board of the South African Journal of Botany, the Official Journal of the South African Association of Botanists. [31]

Awards and honours

Van Wyk has received several awards, including the Schlich Medal in 1980, the FRD President's Award in 1991, the Havenga prize for Biology from the South African Academy of Science and Art in 2006, the Silver Medal from the South African Association of Botanists in 2007, [32] and the Medal of Honor from the Faculty of Natural Science and Technology of the South African Academy of Science and Art in 2011. [4] [2]

Van Wyk was elected a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences in 2013. [29]

Publications

Van Wyk has (co-)authored more than two hundred articles in scientific journals and (co-)authored more than 180 botanical names. His books and commentary [33] [34] have been published in Afrikaans, German, Polish and Korean, in addition to the English-language editions. [6] [29] [35]

The standard author abbreviation B.-E.van Wyk is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. [36]

Related Research Articles

<i>Aloe</i> Genus of succulent flowering plants

Aloe is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering succulent plants. The most widely known species is Aloe vera, or "true aloe". It is called this because it is cultivated as the standard source for assorted pharmaceutical purposes. Other species, such as Aloe ferox, are also cultivated or harvested from the wild for similar applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rooibos</span> Species of plant in the family Fabaceae

Rooibos, or Aspalathus linearis, is a broom-like member of the plant family Fabaceae that grows in South Africa's fynbos biome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa</span> South African traditional healer (1921–2020)

Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa was a Zulu sangoma from South Africa. He was known as an author of books that draw upon African mythology, traditional Zulu folklore, extraterrestrial encounters and his own personal encounters. His last work was a graphic novel called the Tree of Life Trilogy based on his writings of his most famous book, Indaba my Children. In 2018 he was honoured with an USIBA award presented by the South African Department of Arts and Culture, for his work in Indigenous Wisdom.

<i>Amaranthus retroflexus</i> Species of flowering plant

Amaranthus retroflexus is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae with several common names, including red-root amaranth, redroot pigweed, red-rooted pigweed, common amaranth, pigweed amaranth, and common tumbleweed.

<i>Mesembryanthemum tortuosum</i> Species of succulent

Mesembryanthemum tortuosum is a succulent plant in the family Aizoaceae native to the Cape Provinces of South Africa. It is known as kanna, channa, kougoed —which literally means, 'chew(able) things' or 'something to chew'.

<i>Agathosma betulina</i> Species of flowering plant

Agathosma betulina is a flowering plant in the family Rutaceae, native to the lower elevation mountains of western South Africa, where it occurs near streams in fynbos habitats.

<i>Artemisia afra</i> Species of flowering plant

Artemisia afra, the African wormwood,[4] is a common species of the genus Artemisia in Africa, with a wide distribution from South Africa, to areas reaching to the North and East, as far north as Ethiopia.

<i>Arctopus</i> Genus of flowering plants

Arctopus is a genus of flowering plants in the Apiaceae, with three species. The genus is endemic to Southern Africa. The genus name means "bears foot" in reference to the curious growth habit, resembling a large footprint, if not to the fact that the leaves are fringed with formidable prickles that punish bare feet and grazing.

<i>Choritaenia</i> Genus of flowering plants

Choritaenia capensis is a species of flowering plant in the Apiaceae, of the monotypic genus Choritaenia. It is endemic to central parts of southern Africa. Individuals are usually reported from disturbed areas, such as roadsides, flood plains, and dry dams. It flowers in the spring and early summer. It is distinct for containing several morphological features that are not seen in any of the other genera of the family Apiaceae. Its fruits have a dense vestiture and hygroscopic carpophore that may be an adaptation that allows the plant to respond rapidly to the earliest spring rains.

<i>Aloe marlothii</i> Species of plant in the family Asphodelaceae

Aloe marlothii is a large, single-stemmed Southern African aloe of rocky places and open flat country, occasionally growing up to 6 m tall.

<i>Gomphocarpus fruticosus</i> Species of plant

Gomphocarpus fruticosus is a species of plant native to South Africa. It is also common in New Zealand where it is the main host of the monarch butterfly. The plant's tissues contain sufficient cardenolides that consumption of significant quantities of the plant's leaves, stems, or fruit may lead to death in livestock and humans.

<i>Rotheca myricoides</i> Species of flowering plant

Rotheca myricoides is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to Africa and widely cultivated elsewhere. In cultivation, it is frequently known by one of its synonyms, such as Clerodendrum myricoides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditional African medicine</span> Traditional medical practices in Africa

Traditional African medicine is a range of traditional medicine disciplines involving indigenous herbalism and African spirituality, typically including diviners, midwives, and herbalists. Practitioners of traditional African medicine claim, largely without evidence, to be able to cure a variety of diverse conditions including cancer, psychiatric disorders, high blood pressure, cholera, most venereal diseases, epilepsy, asthma, eczema, fever, anxiety, depression, benign prostatic hyperplasia, urinary tract infections, gout, and healing of wounds and burns and Ebola.

Onocosiphon suffruticosus, commonly known as the shrubby mayweed, is a flowering plant native to Namibia and the Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces of South Africa. Additionally, it can now be found in France, Australia, and the USA.

<i>Aloe pretoriensis</i> Species of succulent

Aloe pretoriensis, is a species of Aloe found discontinuously in northern South Africa, eastern Zimbabwe and eastern Eswatini. It occurs in rocky grassland at generally higher altitudes. It is not threatened, but human-induced declines have occurred in the Bankenveld region of Gauteng. It flowers in winter and is pollinated by insects and birds. The pointy flowers are carried on elongated racemes on a decidedly tall and branched peduncle. They have a tight rosette of erect, pale green leaves, which are quite thin compared to other Aloe species. Drying leaf tips turn reddish.

<i>Gardenia volkensii</i> Species of plant

Gardenia volkensii, commonly known as bushveldt gardenia or Transvaal gardenia, is a species of plant in the family Rubiaceae native to southern Africa.

Plectranthus ambiguus, the pincushion spurflower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to the Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal provinces of South Africa. Its cultivar 'Manguzuku' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Flowers are pinkish purple with faint purple lines on the upper edge.

John Massa Kasenene is a botanical and environmental ecologist, academic, scientist and academic administrator in Uganda. From 4 October 2022, he serves as the substantive Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Mountains of the Moon University (MMU), at that time, the tenth public university in the country.

<i>Anthurium marmoratum</i> Species of plant

Anthurium marmoratum is a species of plant in the genus Anthurium native to western Colombia and Ecuador. It is a member of the section Cardiolonchium, or the velvet-leaved Anthuriums, along with A. papillilaminum, A. regale, A. crystallinum, and others. It is one of many species used by curanderos in South America to treat snakebite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzanne Urverg-Ratsimamanga</span> French-Malagasy Ashkenazi Jews physician and biochemist (1928-2016)

Suzanne Urverg-Ratsimamanga was a French-Malagasy Ashkenazi Jewish physician and biochemist. She was married to Albert Rakoto Ratsimamanga, with whom she founded the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research.

References

  1. ↑ "1092541". viaf.org. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  2. 1 2 (PDF). 2017-09-04 https://web.archive.org/web/20170904011127/https://www.uj.ac.za/faculties/science/botany/Documents/Ben-Erik%20van%20Wyk_CV.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-09-04. Retrieved 2022-12-27.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ↑ "ORCID". orcid.org. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  4. 1 2 3 "Ben-Erik van Wyk". www.stellenboschwriters.com. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  5. ↑ "Ben-Erik van Wyk, Timber Press author". 2016-02-02. Archived from the original on 2016-02-02. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  6. 1 2 "Prof Ben-Erik van Wyk". University of Johannesburg. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  7. ↑ Phytomedicines, Herbal Drugs, and Poisons. University of Chicago Press.
  8. ↑ Steenkamp, P. A.; Harding, N. M.; van Heerden, F. R.; van Wyk, B. -E. (2004-10-04). "Fatal Datura poisoning: identification of atropine and scopolamine by high performance liquid chromatography/photodiode array/mass spectrometry". Forensic Science International. 145 (1): 31–39. doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.03.011. ISSN   0379-0738. PMID   15374592.
  9. ↑ Calviño, Carolina I.; Tilney, Patricia M.; Wyk, Ben-Erik; Downie, Stephen R. (2006-12-01). "A molecular phylogenetic study of southern African Apiaceae". American Journal of Botany. 93 (12): 1828–1847. doi: 10.3732/ajb.93.12.1828 . ISSN   0002-9122. PMID   21642128.
  10. ↑ van Wyk, B-E.; Albrecht, C. (2008-10-28). "A review of the taxonomy, ethnobotany, chemistry and pharmacology of Sutherlandia frutescens (Fabaceae)". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. Ethnobotany in South Africa. 119 (3): 620–629. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2008.08.003. ISSN   0378-8741. PMID   18761068.
  11. ↑ Dagne, E.; Bisrat, D.; Viljoen, A.; van Wyk, B.E. (2000-10-01). "Chemistry of Aloe Species". Current Organic Chemistry. 4 (10): 1055–1078. doi:10.2174/1385272003375932.
  12. ↑ Chen, Weiyang; Van Wyk, Ben-Erik; Vermaak, Ilze; Viljoen, Alvaro M. (2012-03-01). "Cape aloes—A review of the phytochemistry, pharmacology and commercialisation of Aloe ferox". Phytochemistry Letters. 5 (1): 1–12. Bibcode:2012PChL....5....1C. doi:10.1016/j.phytol.2011.09.001. ISSN   1874-3900.
  13. ↑ Viljoen, Alvaro; van Vuuren, Sandy; Ernst, Erika; Klepser, Michael; Demirci, Betűl; Başer, Husnu; van Wyk, Ben-Erik (2003-10-01). "Osmitopsis asteriscoides (Asteraceae)-the antimicrobial activity and essential oil composition of a Cape-Dutch remedy". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 88 (2): 137–143. doi:10.1016/S0378-8741(03)00191-0. ISSN   0378-8741. PMID   12963133.
  14. ↑ Van Wyk, Ben-Erik (2002). Poisonous plants of South Africa. Fanie Van Heerden, Bosch Van Oudtshoorn (1st ed.). Pretoria: Briza Publications. ISBN   978-1-875093-30-4. OCLC   51046239.
  15. 1 2 van Wyk, B. -E. (2008-10-28). "A review of Khoi-San and Cape Dutch medical ethnobotany". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. Ethnobotany in South Africa. 119 (3): 331–341. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2008.07.021. ISSN   0378-8741. PMID   18703129.
  16. ↑ Van Wyk, B. -E.; de Wet, H.; Van Heerden, F. R. (2008-11-01). "An ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants in the southeastern Karoo, South Africa". South African Journal of Botany. 74 (4): 696–704. doi: 10.1016/j.sajb.2008.05.001 . ISSN   0254-6299.
  17. ↑ Mhlongo, L. S.; Van Wyk, B. -E. (2019-05-01). "Zulu medicinal ethnobotany: new records from the Amandawe area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa". South African Journal of Botany. 122: 266–290. doi: 10.1016/j.sajb.2019.02.012 . ISSN   0254-6299. S2CID   146062047.
  18. ↑ Van Wyk, Ben-Erik (2000). People's plants : a guide to useful plants of Southern Africa. Nigel Gericke (1st ed.). Pretoria, South Africa: Briza Publications. ISBN   1-875093-19-2. OCLC   43265207.
  19. ↑ Van Wyk, Ben-Erik (1997). Medicinal plants of South Africa. Bosch Van Oudtshoorn, Nigel Gericke (1st ed.). Pretoria: Briza Publications. ISBN   1-875093-09-5. OCLC   38101658.
  20. ↑ Wyk, Ben-Erik van; Wink, Michael (2018-10-31). Medicinal Plants of the World. CABI. ISBN   978-1-78639-325-8.
  21. ↑ van Wyk, B. -E. (2008-10-28). "A broad review of commercially important southern African medicinal plants". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. Ethnobotany in South Africa. 119 (3): 342–355. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2008.05.029. ISSN   0378-8741. PMID   18577439.
  22. ↑ Van Wyk, B. -E. (2011-10-01). "The potential of South African plants in the development of new medicinal products". South African Journal of Botany. Special issue on Economic Botany. 77 (4): 812–829. doi: 10.1016/j.sajb.2011.08.011 . ISSN   0254-6299.
  23. ↑ Wyk, Ben-Erik van (2014-09-26). Culinary Herbs and Spices of the World. University of Chicago Press. ISBN   978-0-226-09183-9.
  24. ↑ Dugmore, Heather. "Spice up your knowledge on herbs". www.iol.co.za. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  25. ↑ Heathcock, Kit (2022-06-17). "SCENTS & SENSIBILITY: A taste of fynbos – exploring South Africa's indigenous culinary herbs". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  26. ↑ Fabricant, Florence (2014-02-11). "A Cooking Class, an Herb Book and a Special Cod". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  27. ↑ Johannesburg, University of. "Why wild African fruits can supplement low protein staple foods". phys.org. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  28. ↑ "Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries". kiki.huh.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  29. 1 2 3 "Van Wyk Ben-Erik | The AAS". www.aasciences.africa. Archived from the original on 2022-12-27. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  30. ↑ "Ben-Erik van Wyk - Professor of Botany". app.ckbk.com. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  31. ↑ "Editorial board - South African Journal of Botany | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier". www.sciencedirect.com. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  32. ↑ "SAAB Award Recipients". South African Association of Botanists. 2018-08-11. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  33. ↑ "Invasives and Natives: Hello aloe". South Coast Herald. 11 June 2017. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  34. ↑ Uys, Fredalette. "Vrae oor bestuursplan vir bitteraalwyn, heuningbos". Landbou (in Afrikaans). Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  35. ↑ "Ben-Erik van Wyk". University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  36. ↑ International Plant Names Index.  B.-E.van Wyk.
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