Dr. Christopher Hobbs, a 4th generation botanist and herbalist, has studied and worked with the medicinal uses of herbs for over 30 years.

In that time, he has become an acknowledged expert in the field, lecturing all over the U.S., and internationally in such countries as Canada, Great Britain and Spain. Christopher’s specialties include herbs and the immune system; adaptogenic herbs, Native American uses of herbs, the pharmacology and chemistry of herbal medicines, herbs for the liver and the botany and taxonomy of herbs.

In 1984, Christopher founded Native Herb Co., dedicated to making high-quality liquid extracts from local plants and selected herbs from other cultures. This line is now marketed nationally through Rainbow Light. He is a consultant to the herb industry since 1985, and has worked with a number of herbal companies, including Nature’s Way and Rainbow Light.

Christopher has taught or lectured at universities and medical schools such as Stanford Medical School, Yale Medical School, John Bastyr College and the National School of Naturopathic Medicine; including on-going classes at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received his acupuncture license in February 1995.

He has written 22 books on herbs and health, including the recent Peterson’s Field Guide to Medicinal Plants of the Western U.S. (with Steven Foster), and the mainstream Herbal Remedies for Dummies, and Vitamins for Dummies (with Elson Haas M.D.). Christopher has also written many articles in journals of botanical medicine and popular health magazines

The library at the Institute, which Christopher has been building since 1968 contains over 3,500 books on herbal medicine, including rare herbals from the 16th century, as well as journals from around the world, including complete runs of Planta Medica and Economic Botany. He completed the MEDLARS on-line searching program from the National Library of Medicine at UCLA in 1984 and has spent hundreds of hours on-line searching Medline, Toxline, Chem Abstracts, Biosis, CAB Abstracts, Agricola and other databases. At present, books, articles and database searches on all aspects of health and herbal medicine are being computerized and indexed for better access.

Christopher is a member of the following organizations:

• Director and founder of the Institute for Natural Products Research
• Founding professional member of the American Herbalist Guild
• Herbal advisory board of Let’s Live Magazine
• Former Vice President, current member of the board of trustees and member of the standards committee, American Herbal Products Association (AHPA)
• Consultant to the American Herb Association
• Contributing editor to Herbalgram, the only scientifically peer-reviewed botanical Medicine journal in the country
• Member, Society for Medicinal Plant Research, The Society for Economic Botany, The Society for Ethnobiology, etc.