The roots of healing

A tea party conjures up visions of little girls playing dress-up with teddy bears or well-coiffed matrons sipping Earl Grey from fine, bone china cups.

A dozen UD undergrads gathered around a hot plate in a basement classroom in Townsend Hall isn’t the typical image of a tea party. But, at least once a week, the “Healing Plants: Medicine, Myth and Magic” class samples a different variety of tea, from ginseng green to a Chinese herbal known as “Sinus Buster.”

“Our ‘tea parties’ are fun, but they also are a teaching tool,” co-instructor Susan Baldwin says. “For centuries, teas and herbal teas—which, strictly speaking, aren’t true teas—have been consumed as healing tonics and traditional medicines. The teas that we serve in class tie in with the weekly readings and assignments.”

Tea parties are just one of the ways that Baldwin and Sherry Kitto, professor of horticulture, engage their students in hands-on learning in this innovative, interdisciplinary class that merges science, literature, folklore, world cultures, alternative medicine and an analysis of current events. Students also propagate their own healing plants, collect and dry herbs, create “medicine walk” brochures of the University of Delaware Botanical Gardens and learn about the scientific basis of aromatherapy while making hops-infused pillows.   

As a professor in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Kitto devotes her research time to the study of plant tissue culture, specifically the micropropagation and regeneration of herbaceous perennials native to the eastern United States. Her teaching responsibilities include introductory and advanced classes in plant cell and tissue culture, as well as in biotechnology.

At first glance, “Healing Plants” doesn’t seem a natural fit for this analytical scientist. She says it was a student who motivated her to develop the course four years ago.

“I had a young woman tell me she would love to take a class in healing plants,” Kitto says. “I gauged interest and got such positive feedback that I decided to go ahead. It was challenging to start something from scratch; I spent the better part of six months developing course materials.”

A member of the UD faculty since 1984, Kitto says that the student request came during a period when she was taking stock of her career and its direction.

“I felt like I had made significant research gains in the study of tissue culture,” she says. “In addition, I had spent a lot of time on service, through projects at Longwood Gardens and other area organizations.”

Although she always planned to continue her service and research work, she says, she also decided at that time to expend even greater energy in teaching.

“This class, in direct response to student interest, was the first step,” Kitto says.     

The interdisciplinary nature of “Healing Plants” is evident in the course materials and lectures. Students read titles that sound as if they came from the bookshelves of a health food store: Growing Myself: A Spiritual Journey Through Gardening, Medicine Walk: Reconnecting to Mother Earth and Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice. 

However, the class also exposes them to such guest speakers as Sue Snider, Cooperative Extension specialist for food and nutrition, who discusses the safety and health of herbs from a scientific perspective. Students visit Delaware State University, where they meet with world-recognized herb scientist Art Tucker in his herbal chemical analysis lab and tour the university’s herbarium, the only academic herbarium on the East Coast. In addition, they read critical analyses of herbal treatments, such as Pondering the Placebo Effect and Miracle in a Bottle.

Students are encouraged to develop their own opinions about healing plants and to defend these positions. Class discussion, take-home opinion papers and journal-writing give the students plenty of practice at these skills.

Victoria Gallagher, EG ’05, took the course last semester and says she was impressed with the content. During her senior year, Gallagher was co-president of Students for Holistic Living and already was familiar with the concept of plants as instruments of healing. But, she says the class extended her knowledge base and was thought-provoking and a lot of fun, too.

Animal science major Jen Puttress, AG ’08, says the hands-on format made the class enjoyable. “The lab where we made ginger ale was great,” Puttress says. “It was the best-tasting ginger ale ever.”

While making that beverage, Puttress and her classmates also learned that ginger root has long been used as a remedy for nausea and motion sickness.

“We knew experiential learning was a natural fit for this type of course,” Kitto says. “When students are personally involved in the learning process—whether that means drying herbs or making ginger ale—learning takes place at a higher level. Connections are made with other things the students have learned, in class and outside class, and they’re more likely to retain what they’ve learned.” 

Even more important, Kitto says, is that the course stimulates the students to hone their analytical and reasoning abilities. “What we’re teaching, most of all,” she says, “is critical thinking.”

—Margo McDonough, AS ’86, ’95M