USER

Dr. Michael Tims is Director of Herbal Programs at Maryland University of Integrative Health. He has taught at the University of Maryland and Montgomery College, and has had broad experience in the herbal supplement industry as a managing partner of Cash Grocer Natural Foods, as a clinical herbalist, and as an academic researcher focused on the chemical ecology of endangered medicinal plant species. Dr. Tims also collaborated with federal regulators to provide medicinal plant toxicity assessments. He co-developed HerbMed, a web-based herbal database providing access to scientific data on the use and safety of herbal medicine, and he completed an NIH/NIST postdoctoral fellowship developing Botanical Standard Reference Materials.

Some of his analytical research with medicinal plants explored:

1. the role of  lectins as signaling molecules in American Mistletoe (Phoradendron leucarpum) to initiate the intercalation of mistletoe and host plant vascular structures;
2. the chemical ecology of Hydrastis canadensis rhizosphere and it’s effect on soil fungi ;
3. enzymatic extraction and certification measurements of green tea (Camellia sinensis) Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) in leaf powder, extract and finished product forms;
4. development of analytical methods for  the simultaneously separation and detection of a full spectrum of secondary metabolites found in kudzu (Pueria lobata), soy (Glycine max), and red clover (Trifolium pratense) and black cohosh (Actea raceomosa).

His current research interests focus on:

1. Understanding the role plant root secondary metabolites play in the rhizosphere ecology and how that ecology influences the makeup of medicinal active chemical constituents.
2. How thus use of adaptogenic and trophorestorive herbal medicine supports human resilience.
3. Designing botanical pharmacognosy based solutions to the GMP demands faced by small herbal product manufacturers.
4. Rational botanical extraction method design.
5. Pedagogical inquiry about how students acquire innovative and improvisation thinking skills.

Dr. Tims received his BA in English/Writing from George Mason University and his Ph.D. in the Chemical Ecology of Medicinal Plants from the University of Maryland, College Park.