Herbalism has experienced a huge growth over the last few years.  This has been part of an increased interest in healthy natural lifestyles.  Organic food, vegetarianism, alternative medicine, conservation, have all seen the same growth.  At the same time, there has been a growth in life sciences and the computer and knowledge based industries.  Although these two streams of development have had some influence upon eachother they have remained aloof.  Herbalism still places undue weight on a historical past and science is equally wedded to its tradition of working from simplified reductionist models.

Recently, herbalism in the United Kingdom, as part of Europe, has seen itself under attack from vested interests with exceptional power to influence legislation.  It has lacked the organised knowledge base which is pre-requisite to a successful defence.  This project will provide part of the answer to this problem.  Other work such as the development of testing protocols applicable to the complex holistic effects of herbal extracts will also be needed but is unlikely to take place without the sort of knowledge base envisaged in the Herbal Repository.