Merlin Lincoln Kwao Mensah

Faculty Biography

He had his undergraduate education at the then UST (now KNUST) for the Pharmacy (B. Pharm. Hons.) degree (1970 -1974.). He studied for his PhD at Nottingham University (UK) in Pharmacy and Botany. He returned to Ghana and began his career as a lecturer in the Department of Pharmacognosy in 1983. He had had a stint in the Department as a Teaching Assistant / National Service person in the Department. He transferred to the Department of Herbal Medicine after its inception in 2002. He is a fellow of the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana and the Ghana College of Pharmacists. He was first Head, Department of Herbal Medicine (Oct. to Dec. 2005) and then Dean of Students of KNUST (2006-2009). Before then, he was the Coordinator, Herbal Medicine Programme (Oct. 2004 to Sept. 2005) and before that, the Head, Department of Pharmacognosy (2001-2003).Teaching areas: Pharmacognosy, Botany of medicinal plants, Phytochemistry, Evaluation of medicinal plant products, Poisons of plant origin, History of traditional medicine, Phytotherapy, Policy, Regulation and Ethics in traditional medicine. He has also served the nation on Committees of the Ministry of Health to draft policy documents on Traditional Medicine, Training Manuals for Herbalists, and on a Committee of the Food and Drugs Authority to draft guidelines for registration of herbal medicines in Ghana. He has served on the WHO (AFRO) Committee of Experts on Traditional Mediciine.