Plants as Medicine - Diversity in Switzerland

Plants as Medicine – Diversity in Switzerland
June 4 to October 11, 2026

Artists: Isabell Bullerschen and Anthea Östreicher

In collaboration with the Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich, WE ARE AIA presents Plants as Medicine – Diversity in Switzerland.

This multifaceted special exhibition at the Botanical Garden in Zurich offers insights into Switzerland’s medical landscape and makes tangible the diverse uses of plants for health. In various research projects at the Botanical Garden, ethnobotanical questions on the traditional use of medicinal plants in Switzerland have been, and continue to be, investigated as exemplars. 1 Different perspectives – ranging from ethnology to pharmacology, botany, and regulation, among others – on phytotherapy and other applications of medicinal plants are addressed at individual exhibition stations and made accessible to visitors interested in health-related topics.

Plants are reliable companions for all human health concerns. They have the great advantage of existing at the intersection between food, spice, and medicine, thereby offering a wide range of self-directed possibilities for prevention and treatment.

As living beings with whom we share our environment, plants also stimulate emotional relationships, from which we can draw strength. Perhaps we recall the orange blossoms of calendula, their scent, and the warmth of the sun when we saw or picked them in a garden. Such memories and their emotional context can indeed positively enhance the effectiveness of a calendula treatment. It is therefore telling that interviews and conversations with herbal practitioners reveal a deep sense of connectedness to the plant world. Strengthening this relationship appears to be a key characteristic of traditional herbal medicine.

Finally, a look at more than 2,000 years of history shows that a complex root system has nourished and shaped today’s knowledge of medicinal plants. Until around 150 years ago, plants were both fundamental to life and a primary source of medicine. In more recent medical history however, the role of plants has been largely marginalized by the development of synthetic pharmaceuticals. This raises an increasingly urgent question: where is herbal medicine heading?

With this special exhibition and its wide range of related activities, the Botanical Garden provides a platform for knowledge exchange and networking among users, practitioners, researchers, and educators involved in using plants for health. In doing so, it makes an essential contribution to the ongoing process of understanding the diversity, significance, and potential of plants in medicine – and all visitors are warmly invited to take part in shaping the future of herbal medicine.

Maja Dal Cero, Dr. sc. nat.

7 April 2026

Photocredit: Claudia Winteler