HEALTH CONFERENCE: The Pillars of Health

Physician, phytotherapist and ethnobotanist Dr. Aline Mercan is passionate about medicinal plants and their relationship to man. For years, she has been campaigning to safeguard this invaluable resource in every corner of the globe.

Doctor, phytotherapist and ethnobotanist: a passion for people and plants

Doctor Aline Mercan is a general practitioner, phytotherapist and doctor in bio-cultural anthropology. She is a regular contributor to a number of magazines and natural health programs, including Plantes & Santé and Allô Docteurs on France 5. She also teaches in the Phyto-aromatherapy courses at Grenoble and Rennes Universities, and in Ethnobotany at Grenoble University.

Although she grew up surrounded by nature and has always loved its contact, it was only very late in life that Aline Mercan became interested in plants. It was after a long detour, in her own words, that she discovered her passion for medicinal plants and phytotherapy!


After several years working as a general practitioner, Aline Mercan turned to phytotherapy because she was disappointed with traditional allopathic medicines. She enrolled in the Phytotherapy course at the University of Bobigny - Paris XIII, where at the time plants were still abstract objects, therapeutic materials rather than living beings.



Dr. Aline Mercan became interested in ethnopharmacology, then ethnobotany, and developed a passion for the human-plant relationship as such. She wrote her thesis on the teaching of phytotherapy in France.