Djaja Djendoel Soejarto

Djaja D. Soejarto is an Indonesian-born botanist, ethnobotanist, pharmacognosist, academic and author. He is an adjunct curator at the Field Museum of Natural History as well as professor emeritus in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and at the Pharmacognosy Institute of the College of Pharmacy, the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Soejarto is most known for his works on medicinal plants of Southeast Asia. His works have been published in academic journals, including Economic Botany and Journal of Natural Products, as well as books such as Ethnobotany of Tuberculosis in Laos and Medicinal Plants of Laos. He is the recipient of the 2022 Tyler Prize Award from the American Society of Pharmacognosy.

Soejarto was the editor of the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.

Education Soejarto completed his BSc from the College of Agriculture in Java in 1962, followed by an M.A. in biology from Harvard University. In 1969, he obtained a PhD in biology from the same institution. Between 1991 and 1997, he held an honorary appointment as a researcher in the National Museum, Manila. Apart from this, he served in consulting roles at the Chinese Traditional Medicine Division of the Hong Kong Department of Health from 2009 to 2017. Since 2013, he has served as an adjunct curator in Science and Education at the Field Museum of Natural History. Furthermore, in collaboration with his chemistry colleagues, he has conducted fieldwork that led to the discovery of new drug lead compounds from plants he collected, primarily in Vietnam and Laos.

Works Soejarto has authored books throughout his research career. In his book titled Ethnobotany of Tuberculosis in Laos, he explored traditional healing practices in Laos, presenting previously unpublished photographs of medicinal plants from the region. The book also provided a comprehensive account of newly isolated medically interesting compounds from the genus Marsypopetalum (Annonaceae), marking the first documentation of such compounds from this genus. In the same year, he explored the use of locally available plants or plant extracts for primary health care by presenting a list of plant-derived drugs their sources, and therapeutic uses, aiming to identify alternatives to pharmaceutical preparations. His 1995 collaborative study with JT Baker and others discussed the shift in attitudes towards global genetic resources, emphasizing the importance of conserving these resources and indigenous knowledge through international collaboration, fair compensation, and the implementation of policies outlined in the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Furthermore, in papers published in 2004 and 2007, he provided a factual model on the equitable sharing of benefits in a north–south bioprospecting endeavor between the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam, on the one hand, and the Institute of Traditional Medicine, Ministry of Health, Lao People's Democratic Republic, on the other.

Soejarto has also worked in the identification of tropical plant materials for research in developing anticancer and anti-HIV drugs. His research has contributed to the discovery and subsequent advancement of bioactive molecules. Notably, he identified the source plant of the anti-HIV active lead compounds calanolides A and B from Calophyllum lanigerum and C. teysmannii (Clusiaceae) in Sarawak, Malaysia, as well as anticancer active lead compounds phyllanthusmins C and D from Phyllanthus poilanei (Euphorbiaceae) collected in Vietnam. Additionally, he also investigated the potential sweetening agents of plant origin. In one of his studies, he explored the organoleptic qualities of 184 Stevia leaf samples, highlighting that a 62-year-old leaf of S. rebaudiana retained significant and lasting sweetness through diverse preservation methods. It further identified 18 other species and varieties for potential phytochemical investigation of ent-kaurene glycosides. His 2005 collaborative research with A Koch and others delved into Maasai herbalists' traditional knowledge of malaria treatment, revealing 21 plant species through interviews, with in vitro assays confirming the antiplasmodial efficacy of more than half, highlighting ethnomedical inquiry's potential for antimalarial drug discovery. Furthermore, he previously led the Vietnam-Laos International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) project from 1998 to 2012. This research explored and identify novel bioactive compounds from plants in Vietnam and Laos for potential therapeutic applications against HIV/AIDS, cancer, tuberculosis, and malaria.