Dr Sue Burge OBE is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, and a Garden Fellow at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), London.

In her talk, Sue will review the history of herbal medicines, showing how plants have been used as cosmetics and as treatments for skin diseases for thousands of years. She will reveal how so-called ‘natural’ treatments may cause skin problems. Finally, she will introduce some of the plants that make modern dermatological medicines and consider the science behind these treatments.

Sue studied medicine at Bristol and Oxford before completing her postgraduate training in dermatology at Oxford. Her clinical interests and publications have focused on medical dermatology and medical education. She was Director of Clinical Studies at Oxford and has been President of the British Association of Dermatologists and President of the British Society for Medical Dermatology. She retired from clinical practice in 2012, but continues to teach. Sue leads tours at both Oxford Botanic Garden and the RCP’s Garden of Medicinal Plants, and contributed to the RCP publication Modern Medicines from Plants (CRC Press 2024).