I completed a BSc, BSc Hons. (cum laude) and MSc (cum laude) in Botany at Stellenbosch University (SA).

In 1994 I commenced with a PhD at the University of Johannesburg on the chemotaxonomy of the genus Aloe.

In 1999 I was appointed as a senior lecturer in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at WITS Medical School.

In July 2005 I was appointed as a research fellow in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology (Pretoria). More than 100 post-graduate students have graduated under my supervision since 2002 and I have hosted >30 postdoctoral fellows.

I have authored / co-authored >300 peer reviewed papers (h index 52) mostly on the phytochemical exploration and pharmacological activity of indigenous medicinal and aromatic plants.

I have been elected on to the editorial board of the Journal of Essential Oil Research (Francis & Taylor), Phytochemistry Letters (Elsevier), and the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Ethnopharmacology (Elsevier) since 2017 (IF 5.3).

In October 2013. I was awarded the National Research Chair in Phytomedicine a position which I hold concurrently as Director of the SAMRC Herbal Drugs Research Unit in South Africa.