After three years filled with unforgettable adventures in the Amazon forest, I returned to the Netherlands with a bag full of stories, sensory treasures, and many ambitions. There I embarked on a new chapter in my life, further deepening my ethnobotanical knowledge and immersing myself into a new but related field: namely, the influence of plants on the human sensory system and brain. By the end of 2016, all my dreams, passions, and ambitions converged, resulting in the creation of Scent & Spice: a knowledge and experience centre dedicated to ethnobotany, and the study of interactions between plants, the senses and the human brain.
My company's mission is to promote people’s awareness about the often forgotten impact of medicinal, culinary, and cosmetic plants – and, more specifically, their chemical compounds –, not only on our health, but also on our feeling of happiness. In order to achieve this, I give courses and workshops, work as a guest lecturer at Wageningen University, but I am also a public speaker, consultant, and trainer. Being a trained ethnobotanist, I have a profound, science-based knowledge about the application of plants. Furthermore, as a herbalist, I know how to process plants for use in daily life, and, being a storyteller, I can tell you all about it in an entertaining way. Authenticity, expertise, humour, and adventure form the pillars of Scent & Spice.
