Beneficial plants are everywhere
Medicinal, useful, and nutritious plants hold the potential to restore both human health and ecological balance.
BPRA’s mission is to protect these vital plants, research them, and preserve the invaluable indigenous and traditional knowledge that sustains their continued use.
Founded in 1979, and reinstated in 2024, BPRA is a nonprofit that supports the research of plants to improve human and planetary health.
Dr. Andrew Weil is one of the founding members of BPRA, who has dedicated in life to support health and wellbeing of humans.
BPRA is creating a path for whole-plant research to be recognized, revered, and used.
Whole-plant research is essential because it honors the complexity, intelligence, and synergistic relationships that exist within nature’s pharmacy. Unlike isolated compounds, whole plants offer a spectrum of bioactive constituents that work together to enhance efficacy, reduce side effects, and support the body’s innate healing systems in ways modern reductionist models often overlook. At a time when women’s health needs are profoundly underserved, and biodiversity is under threat, advancing rigorous, evidence-based whole-plant research is not only a scientific necessity but a cultural imperative. The Beneficial Plant Research Association (BPRA) is uniquely positioned to lead this movement—at the cutting edge of elevating whole-plant medicine to be revered, used, and recognized as a cornerstone of global health and ecological resilience. By weaving together traditional knowledge, modern science, and conservation, BPRA ensures that whole-plant research is not only legitimized but celebrated as an essential path forward.
Learn more about our current projects
Plants for Women’s Health
Coca Leaf
Medicinal plants were the mainstay of medicine for centuries.
Many notable pharmaceutical drugs are plant derived compounds that were first isolated from botanical sources ie. aspirin (willow bark), quinine (cinchona), opium/morphine (opium poppy), metformin (goat’s rue), pseudoephedrine (ma huang), taxol (yew tree), vincristine (Madagascar periwinkle).
Your donation supports researchers from around the globe that are supporting their local community to preserve precious plant knowledge and further research.
BPRA Values
We believe in Indigenous sovereignty.
We believe that nature has remedies to heal.
We believe in restoring traditional knowledge of the use of plants for all people around the world.
We believe in the importance of conservation of land, languages, cultures, flora and fauna.
We believe the responsibility of shared resources and reciprocity in all business and research endeavors.