SALUPLANTA Young Scientist Award 2026 for PhD thesis on St. John’s wort research

Dr. Ahmed El Menuawy has been awarded the SALUPLANTA Young Scientist Award 2026 for his outstanding work on advancing St. John’s wort cultivation technology. He facilitated a collaboration between the Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology at TU Braunschweig, led by Prof. Dr. Ludger Beerhues, and the Institute for Breeding Research on Horticultural Crops at the Julius Kühn Institute in Quedlinburg, led by Prof. Dr. Frank Marthe. The award ceremony took place during the 36th Bernburg Winter Seminar on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants.

Presentation of the 2026 SALUPLANTA Young Scientist Award to Dr. Ahmed El Menuawy (centre) by German Völpel (Chair of SALUPLANTA e.V.; left) and Dr. Frances Karlstedt-Dorst (co-organiser of the Bernburg Winter Seminar; right). Photo credits: SALUPLANTA e.V.

St. John’s wort is a medicinal plant with outstanding economic value. Extracts from the flowering shoots are found in numerous medicines used to treat mild to moderate depression. The great importance of this medicinal plant also presents a challenge to continuously develop its cultivation for better utilisation. In this regard, Dr. El Menuawy has made a significant contribution in the field of analytical and pharmacological investigation of extracts and the data-driven evaluation of biological traits. He combined genetic diversity analyses with phenotypic recording and AI-supported image analysis for the systematic characterisation of plant source materials. He succeeded in methodologically integrating extract development, quality analysis and functional evaluation, which went hand in hand with the translation of scientific findings into application-oriented concepts.

Dr. El Menuawy was born in Egypt and grew up in Lower Saxony. He studied pharmacy in Erlangen and is a registered pharmacist. His doctoral thesis, for which he has now received this award, was funded by the Agency for Renewable Resources on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. He also received a six-month DAAD scholarship to join the research group of Prof. Dr. Dr. Jens Pahnke at the Institute of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oslo. Recently, the award winner has channelled his research energy into entrepreneurship and taken over a pharmacy in the Passau area.

The SALUPLANTA Young Talent Award is presented by the Association for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants SALUPLANTA e.V. for outstanding scientific or practice-oriented achievements in the field of medicinal and aromatic plants. The award supports young scientists and practitioners aged 35 or under from the fields of crop production, plant breeding and plant protection, as well as related disciplines in the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants. Their work or innovations must make a significant contribution to the further development of the sector.