Topic: David Winston

David Winston RH(AHG) (born 1956) is an American herbalist and ethnobotanist. He has been in practice and teaching since 1977. He works in the Cherokee, Chinese and the western/Eclectic herbal traditions. Winston is a founding/professional member of the American Herbalists Guild, for which he served four terms as a Board Member and is a founding advisory board member of United Plant Savers. He serves as an adjunct professor at the Tai Sophia Institute and is the founder and dean of the Center for Herbal Studies.

David Winston started experimenting with plants in the late 1960s, ingesting them and observing their effects. By age 17 he was leading herb walks and teaching about herbs. In 1974 he moved to New York City where he studied with Dr. Eng, a doctor of Chinese Herbal Medicine. In 1976 he began study with western herbalist William LeSassier who developed the theory of Triune formulas and he also took university courses in anatomy & physiology, pharmacognosy, and cellular biology. In 1977 he started his clinical practice and in 1982 he founded one of NJ's first holistic health centers, The Awareness Health Center, in Franklin Park, NJ. David has also studied herbal medicine with several Cherokee elders, as well as other indigenous people. David is a founding and professional member of the American Herbalist's Guild, the director of the David Winston's Center for Herbal Studies and the Herbal Therapeutics Research Library, the author of Saw Palmetto for Men and Women (Storey), Herbal Therapeutics (2003) and the co-author of Herb Therapy & Supplements; a scientific and traditional approach (2000, Lippencott) and Adaptogens: Herbs for Strength, Stamina and Stress Relief (Healing Arts Press, 2007)

David Winston has one of the largest private libraries of botanical medicine in the United States with extensive holdings with over 8,000 books and over 12,000 articles on file, including Eclectic and Thomsonian Medicine, physiomedicalism, the history of medicine, ethnobotany, pharmacy, pharmocognosy, poisonous plants, mycology, botany and economic botany. The HTRL also has substantial holdings in Southeastern native ethnology, Southeastern material culture and ethnomusicology. He also has the only antiquarian book company Herbalist and Alchemist Books that deals exclusively with antiquarian herbal and medical books.