A great day for herbal medicine

Above: James Wong greeted guests as they arrived at Proline.

It was a great day for Proline Botanicals when James Wong opened the New Extensions at our Essendine facility on Friday 2nd October. Guests assembled from all over the country including medical herbalists, herb suppliers, and contract manufacturers. Many people travelled long distances to attend the event, including one guest who got up at 3am to get to Essendine by 10am!

Above: after a champagne reception James Wong unveiled a plaque formally declaring the New Extensions open.

James Wong, is the presenter of the BBC2 series Grow Your Own Drugs. He is also a co-presenter on the long-running BBC rural affairs series Countryfile and author of the book Grow Your Own Drugs: Easy Recipes for Natural Remedies and Beauty Treats, a tie-in with the television show. He trained to Master's degree level at the University of Kent and at theRoyal Botanic Garden, Kew.

Above: after the formal opening the guests divided into three groups to tour the Essendine facility - here you can see the green group waiting to start.

Left: Proline's Dave Wood leading a party through the new suites of clean rooms - guests expressed themselves as stagged and amazed at the scale of investment that has been made in herbal medicine.

Left: Proline has the largest range of herbal medicines available in the United Kingdom - approximately 1,750 different products.

Left: the orange group examining the new dispensing service where herbalists can ask Proline to make up their bespoke formulations - and even have them despatched straight to the customer.

Left: the warehouse where raw herbs are stored. Upon arrival at Proline herbs are rigorously checked for accurate species, infestation and adulturation. They then go through extensive laboratory analysis, including HPTLC analysis.

Left: after the tours came the lunch which Fia Dobiesz had prepared for the event. All the food was home-made. Many guests expressed astonishment at the quality of this lunch.

Above: following the lunch there were speeches by Jane Gray President of NIMH and Tony Carter before James Wong gave an entertaining talk about his television series Grow Your Own Drugs.

Above: there was also ample opportunity for guests to talk to James Wong informally.

Left: Emma and Sue with James Wong.

Commenting on the day Tony Carter said: "The Open Day was the culmination of years of planning and a demanding twelve months of construction, fitting out and commissioning. I would like to thank all the Proline staff who made the day such an outstanding success and also Fia for putting on such a splendid lunch. It was a great day for herbal medicine."

If you have a group (minimum of 10) you wish to take on a tour of the Essendine facility please contact us.