Sandra's passion and enthusiasm for plant medicine led her to learn old Swiss herbal traditions and to complete an interdisciplinary master's degree in medical anthropology and history at the University of Berne in Switzerland as well as post-graduate qualifications in health sciences in New Zealand and Australia.
She was awarded a scholarship from the University of Canterbury to undertake a doctoral thesis to research the health policy challenges in regulating traditional medicines in the era of contemporary evidence-based policy, of which she is currently in the final stages.
New Zealand's leader in traditional plant medicine, she was appointed by the Ministry of Health as a member of the Technical Advisory Subcommittee (natural products) in 2016.
When Sandra left her homeland in 1995 to travel to New Zealand she settled on the Otago Peninsula.
In her health clinic she began compounding a professional range of health remedies from Swiss formulations several centuries old, after discovering the world class quality and potency of medicinal plants growing naturally in the wild alpine environments of Central Otago.
Sandra champions the effectiveness of traditional plant medicines that are proven by centuries of mainstream use and backed by modern scientific research.
Her ambition is to spread the word that "traditional plant medicine works'' to New Zealanders and give them effective, safe, natural options that improve our health.
