Barbara Pendry

Dr Barbara Pendry

Principal Lecturer

Medicines Research Group

Department of Bioscience , School Of Health, Sport And Bioscience

Barbara is a principal lecturer and programme leader for BSc (Hons) Pharmaceutical Science.

Areas Of Interest

  • Antioxidant activity of medicinal plants particularly in relation to their propensity to inhibit lipid peroxidation.
  • Analysis of herbal medicines and plant materials in regard to quality control, efficacy and safety
  • Materia Medica and herbal therapeutics
  • Botanical treatment of cancer
  • Mental health - psychiatric disorders and the pharmacological treatment of mental illness.
Barbara Pendry

OVERVIEW

Dr Pendry is an herbal medicine practitioner with a PhD in Phytotherapy involving the investigation and identification of antioxidant activity in a small selection of medicinal plants traditionally used in the treatment of chronic age-related diseases. Her particular interest in the treatment of cancer with complementary therapies and mental health has evolved from her previous work as a practitioner with Barnet Cancer Care and as a mental health act manager for Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust and latterly Cornerstone House, a service providing a rehabilitation and recovery service for those people from a mental illness.  At UEL she has responsibility for the leadership of the BSc in Pharmaceutical Science, and was formerly programme leader for Herbal Medicine.
Dr Pendry is a member of the Medicines Research Group at UEL whose current focus is quality assessment and drug discovery potential for natural products related to public health promotion and disease presentation in emerging and developed economies. The issues related to the problems of antimicrobial resistance are of particular interest and Dr Pendry has presented at two workshops in India (funded by the British Council) and Bangladesh (funded by the GCRF fund) to highlight the problems of antimicrobial resistance and discuss the challenges for the development of novel antimicrobial agents from Ayurvedic medicinal plants. 
She is a member of the government's Herbal Medicine Advisory Committee (HMAC) and Editor-In Chief of the Journal of Herbal Medicine.

CURRENT RESEARCH

Active member of the Medicines Research Group (MRG) which embraces research across a wide range of biomedical issues concerning the safety and efficacy of medicines: phytomedicines, nutritional medicine and pharmaceuticals. 

Current activities include:

  • Editor-in-chief of the Elsevier Journal 'Journal of Herbal Medicine'
  • Phytochemical analysis of a range of herbal medicines prescribed by herbalists to assess quality.
  • Collaboration with the West African Health Organisation to assist in the development and the use of herbal medicines in healthcare particularly in the development of quality control testing for herbal products and a pharmacopoeia for traditional herbal medicinal plants for a largely uncontrolled market in West Africa.  
  • Research related to the search for plants to combat antimicrobial resistance plus the use of antibiotics in third world countries contributing to this global threat
  • Research on peer-led drug and alcohol services  
  • Herbal practice related issues such as the use of the restricted Schedule 20 herbs
  • PhD/MSc supervision of a variety of medicinal plant related projects  
  • Dissertation supervisor for undergraduate/postgraduate bioscience students of herbal medicine, pharmacology, pharmaceutical science and biomedical science.  
  • Internal examiner (UEL)/ External examiner for several PhD theses.

PUBLICATIONS

Publications

  • J. Valente, B.Pendry,  E. Galante (2022) Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) as a prophylaxis for urinary tract infections in women: A systematic review with meta-analysis. Journal of Herbal Medicine. Vol 36 100602
  • S. Gilabadi, H. Stanyon, D. DeCeita, B. Pendry, E. Galante (2023) Simple and Effective Method for the Extraction of Silymarin from Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertner Seeds. Journal of Herbal Medicine Vol 37 100619
  • R.Frost, S. Bhamra, B.Pendry, M. Heinrich (2021) Covid-19 and herbal practice: A United Kingdom practitioner survey. Advances in Integrative Medicine. Issue 4, pages 256-260
  • Pendry, B, Busia K, Bell CM. (2005) 'Phytochemical evaluation of selected antioxidant-containing medicinal plants for use in the preparation of a herbal formula- a preliminary study' Chemistry and Biodiversity, vol. 2, p 917-922
  • Pendry, B, Busia K, Bell CM. (2006) 'Phytochemical analysis of the antioxidant properties of Silybum marianum L' Oriental Pharmacy and Experimental Medicine 6(3), 167-173.
  • Sanchez-Medina, A., Etheridge, C., Hawkes, G.E., Hylands, P.J., Pendry, B.A., Hughes, M.J., Corcoran, O. (2007). 'Comparison of rosmarinic acid content in commercial tinctures produced from fresh and dried lemon balm' (Melissa Officinalis). Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences 10(4): 455-463.
  • Jiayo Gao, Alberto Sanchez-Medina, Barbara A. Pendry, Michael J. Hughes, Geoffrey P. Webb and Olivia Corcoran. (2008). 'Validation of a HPLC method for flavonoid biomarkers in skullcap (Scutellaria) and its use to illustrate wide variability in the quality of commercial tinctures'. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science 11(1): 77-87.
  • Pendry, B, Busia K, Bell CM. (2005) 'Phytochemical evaluation of selected antioxidant-containing medicinal plants for use in the preparation of a herbal formula- a preliminary study' Chemistry and Biodiversity, vol. 2, p 917-922
  • Pendry, B, Busia K, Bell CM. (2006) 'Phytochemical analysis of the antioxidant properties of Silybum marianum L' Oriental Pharmacy and Experimental Medicine 6(3), 167-173.
  • Sanchez-Medina, A., Etheridge, C., Hawkes, G.E., Hylands, P.J., Pendry, B.A., Hughes, M.J., Corcoran, O. (2007). 'Comparison of rosmarinic acid content in commercial tinctures produced from fresh and dried lemon balm (Melissa Officinalis)'. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences 10(4): 455-463.
  • Jiayo Gao, Alberto Sanchez-Medina, Barbara A. Pendry, Michael J. Hughes, Geoffrey P. Webb and Olivia Corcoran. (2008). 'Validation of a HPLC method for flavonoid biomarkers in skullcap (Scutellaria) and its use to illustrate wide variability in the quality of commercial tinctures'.  Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science 11(1): 77-87.
  • Watkins, Frances, Pendry, Barbara, Olivia, Corcoran and Sanchez-Medina, Alberto (2011) 'Anglo-Saxon pharmacopoeia revisited: a potential treasure in drug discovery', Drug Discovery Today 16(23-24) 1069-75
  • MacLennan, Euan and Pendry, Barbara A. (2011) 'The evolution of herbal medicine as an unorthodox branch of British Medicine: The role of English legislation from antiquity to 1914'. Journal of Herbal Medicine vol 1 ; 2-14.
  • MacLennan, Euan and Pendry, Barbara A. (2011) 'The evolution of herbal medicine as an unorthodox branch of British Medicine: The role of English legislation from 1914 to the present day'. Journal of Herbal Medicine vol 1 ; 35-41.
  • F Watkins, B Pendry, A Sanchez-Medina and O Corcoran. (2012) Antimicrobial assays of three native British plants used in Anglo-Saxon medicine for wound healing formulations in 10th century England. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 144:408-415.
  • N Corp, B Pendry, (2013) The role of Western Herbal Medicine in the treatment of gout. Journal of Herbal Medicine vol 3 (4) pp157-70
  • S. Rooney, B Pendry (2014) Phytotherapy for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: A review of the literature and evaluation of practitioners' experiences. Journal of Herbal Medicine vol4 (3) pp 159-171
  • L. Mundy, B Pendry, M Rahman (2016) Antimicrobial resistance and synergy in herbal medicine. Journal of Herbal Medicine 6(2) Pages 53-58
  • H. Prosen, B Pendry (2016) Determination of shelf life of Chelidonium majus, Sambucus nigra, Thymus vulgaris and Thymus serpyllum herbal tinctures by various stability-indicating tests. Phytochemistry Letters 16:311-323
  • V. Wright, B Pendry (2016) Compassion and its role in the clinical encounter - An argument for compassion training Journal of Herbal Medicine 6(4), Pages 198-203
  • B.Pendry, V Kemp, M J. Hughes, J Freeman, O Corcoran, E Galante (2017) Silymarin content in Silybum marianum extracts as a biomarker for the quality of commercial tinctures.(2017) Journal of Herbal Medicine Volume 10, Pages 31-36
  • S Büttner, André-Michael Beer, B Pendry (2017) The Potential Role of Phytotherapy as a Supportive Treatment in Breast Cancer Patients. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Onkologie 49(03):124-128
  • J Milovanova-Palmer, B Pendry (2018) Is there a role for herbal medicine in the treatment and management of periodontal disease? Journal of Herbal Medicine Volume 12, Pages 33-48
  • H.Siddique, B Pendry, M Rahman (2019) Terpenes from Zingiber montanum and Their Screening against Multi-Drug Resistant and Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Molecules 24(3):385
  • Z. Kougiali et al…and B.Pendry (2019) Jigsaw Recovery: The Spatio-temporalities of Alcohol Abuse and Recovery in a Non-interventionist, Peer-led Service. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly https://doi.org/10.1080/07347324.2019.1686960 

TEACHING

Formally Program leader with overall responsibility for BSc Herbal Medicine and open access herbal medicine clinic (Stratford Centre for Herbal Medicine) latterly Program leader BSc Pharmaceutical Science. Teaching across all BSc and MSc bioscience programs particularly pharmaceutical science; Pharmaceutics and natural product discovery, and a variety of pharmacology modules. BSc/MSc dissertation supervisor.

External examiner for the Herbal Sciences degree, The Open University. 

Panel member for the Periodic review School of Health, University of Central Lancashire.

BSc (Hons) Pharmaceutical Science

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BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science

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BSc (Hons) Pharmacology

Earn your BSc (Hons) in Pharmacology at UEL, gaining hands-on experience in drug development, biomedical research, and healthcare, preparing you for a dynamic career in science.

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Publications

The last four years of publications can be viewed below. 

Full publications list

Visit the research repository to view a full list of publications

Research repository