Vivien Rolfe

Viv from Pukka Herbs will be speaking on the Garden Stage on Sunday 25 August about Turmeric – the health benefits of the Golden Goddess. 

Turmeric is known as the Golden Goddess in Ayurveda due to its wide-ranging medicinal and health benefits. In this talk we’ll explore the plant and some fun uses of turmeric. We’ll compare some of the traditional wisdom with the available evidence on how the herb works in the body, from the brain, to the heart and our microbiome.

About Vivien:

Viv is a gut physiologist and nutritionist and has researched functional foods and health in academia and industry. For 15 years, she led bioscience education in UK universities, and holds a National Teaching Fellowship, the highest accolade given to outstanding university teachers.

Her interests include open practices to promote access to education for which she received external funding and national awards.

At Pukka Herbs, Viv leads on a portfolio of work looking at how herbs benefit our health. Much of this is done through engaging with young scientists via internships and student projects, through to large-scale human studies on the safety and efficacy of our products. She advocates open access to research and seeks to share our data and research outputs openly for the wider benefit of society.

She is a passionate educator and researcher with a focus on the health benefits of herbs. She contributes to open education communities, including a recently funded Hewlett Foundation project on open textbooks with the Open University.

Her specialisms include: Qualitative and quantitative research methodologies; herbal science; higher education; open and digital learning.