Born in 1969, Pretoria South Africa. Completed a BSc, BSc Hons. (cum laude) and MSc (cum laude) in Botany at Stellenbosch University.  In 1994 Alvaro commenced with a PhD at the University of Johannesburg on the chemotaxonomy of the genus Aloe. In July 2005 he was appointed as a research fellow in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology (Pretoria). More than eighty post-graduate students have graduated under his supervision since 2002. His research interest is the phytochemistry and biological activity of medicinal and aromatic plants indigenous to South Africa. He has authored / co-authored >240 peer reviewed papers mostly on the phytochemical exploration and biological activity of indigenous medicinal and aromatic plants. He has been elected on to the editorial board of the Journal of Essential Oil Research (Francis & Taylor), Phytochemistry Letters (Elsevier) and he is the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Ethnopharmacology (Elsevier). In October 2013 Alvaro was awarded the National Research Chair in Phytomedicine a position which he holds concurrently as Director of the SAMRC Herbal Drugs Research Unit in South Africa.

Unit Director: Prof Alvaro Viljoen
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag X680,
Pretoria | 0001, SOUTH AFRICA
Tel +27 12 382 6360; Fax +27 12 382 6243
Email: viljoenam@tut.ac.za