the inhibitory properties of and mode of action of plant essential oils ...

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank and acknowledge the training, support, encouragement, and
friendship of my supervisors Dr. Lorna Fyfe and Prof. Huw Smith. I would also like
to thank them for the opportunity which they gave me to study for this PhD. While
Queen Margaret University was the academic base for this study, all of the
laboratory work, and much of the mentorship was carried out at the Scottish Parasite
Diagnostic Laboratory (SPDL), Stobhill hospital, Glasgow, at which Huw is
Director.
I would like to thank all of the staff of SPDL who have aided my research, especially
Mr. Grant Spence for his teaching of parasite morphology and morphometry and the
concentration of parasites from historical samples (Chapter 7) and Dr. Rosely
Nichols for her input and training in the molecular diagnosis of Cryptosporidium spp.
and the analysis of ancient DNA from historical samples (Chapter 3 and 7). I would
also like to thank the staff at the Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureas
reference laboratory for providing space to work on, and storage of, my historical
samples.
This work would not have been possible without the kind donations of several key
supplies, including the plant essential oils and GC-MS traces from F.D. Copeland &
Sons, Ltd. and the donation from Anne Thomson (director of Ella Drinks Ltd.) of her
company’s Blaeberry juice drink and the pressed fruit juice. Dr. Gordon McDougall
of the Scottish Crop Research Institute (Invergowrie, UK) provided the polyphenol
berry extracts and I thank him for his help and collaboration in the work presented in
Chapter 5 and 6. Thanks are also due to Dr. Brian Moffat, Director, Soutra Hospital
Archaeoethnopharmacological Research Project, who allowed me to remove
precious samples from the medieval hospital drain and his gift of knowledge and
manuscripts concerning Soutra Hospital. This allowed me to study the most
fascinating subject of palaeoparasitology.
Finally I would like to say a special thank you to my family and close friends who
have always been there to support me during the tenure of this project - through the
good times and the bad times….especially the bad times. You have always been in
my thoughts.
I would like to finish with the following 2 thoughts:
"...it is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins
to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit fact" - Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle.
“When you have eliminated the probable whatever remains, no matter how
improbale, must be the truth.” – Sherlock Holmes
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