Havana Cuba. – In the field of Traditional and Natural Medicine, Phytotherapy is a modality widely spread and accepted as part of the culture of the peoples. In Cuba, this discipline had its precursor and protector in the botanist Juan Tomás Roig, responsible for having collected the largest inventory of medicinal plants on the island.
Born in the year 1877, in santiago de las vegas (Havana), Juan Tomás Roig dedicated himself to Natural Sciences in the teaching and research fields. With a PhD in Pharmacy and Agronomist from the University of Havana in 1910, he was recognized inside and outside Cuba as one of the most eminent botanists due to his exceptional talent for interpreting Cuban nature and perceiving the efficacy of medicinal plants. .
He presented several of his investigations at the Felipe Poey Cuban Society of Natural History, but his most significant contributions were made while he was in charge of the Botany Department of the Santiago de las Vegas Agricultural Experimental Station. From there he began his explorations throughout Cuba and by 1917 he had won the Chair of Cosmology, Biology and Natural History at the Institute of Secondary Education in Pinar del Río by competitive examination.
Starting in 1940, he took charge of the Research Section of the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Botany of the Forestry School. He meticulously studied and classified specimens of Cuba’s timber plants and opposed the destruction of the Cuban mountains, to whose conservation he contributed by drafting a project for forestry legislation and national parks.
He developed important research on the industrialization of natural and traditional medicine products, in order to create a solid chemical-pharmaceutical industry in the country. Among his most outstanding studies, several experts have mentioned that of purple basil, chamomile and purification for the reconstruction of the Cuban variety of tobacco, known as Havanensis.
Dr. Roig died in Havana on February 20, 1971, leaving a valuable research work that has served generations of doctors interested in the applications of phytotherapy.
