Short biography

Roy has been working professionally as an herbalist since 1981. He is trained in the herbal traditions of North America, Europe, the Caribbean, India, and China. His work encompasses clinical practice, quality control, research teaching, writing, regulatory, commercial manufacturing, and advocating for the integration of natural healing modalities into health care systems worldwide. Roy was founder of the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, a non-profit educational corporation dedicated to the development of quality control standards for botanicals as well as the development of comprehensive and peer reviewed therapeutic monographs to encourage the highest degree of safety and effectiveness when using botanicals. The monographs of the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia have been acknowledged as among the most comprehensive in the world.

Roy is the recipient of numerous national and international academic and industry awards for his contributions towards the advancement of botanical medicine, serves as an advisor to numerous organizations and expert committees including the American Botanical Council, United States Pharmacopeia, and World Health Organization-traditional medicines and serves as a reviewer of numerous scientific publications. Roy holds adjunct faculty positions at Sonora University, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, the Li Shizhen Institute of Materia Medica–Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and University of California-Santa Cruz. Roy is an avid lecturer and writer with more than 75 academic publications that include peer review scientific journals, textbooks, popular books and articles, and interviews.