[2] Upon opening, the Museum of Economic Botany displayed 3500 objects specifically designed to show the link between the raw material and the final consumer product.

It currently displays over 3000 specimens, representing 99% of collected material, and regularly hosts contemporary art exhibitions, such as Tamar Dean's photographic exhibition as part of the 2018 Adelaide Festival Biennial.

[4][5] Instigated and developed by its first Director Richard Schomburgk, who drew on his international network of like-minded botanists to gather a wealth of content, the plant materials on display range from essential oils, gums and resins, fibre plants, dyes, food and beverage plants, fibres etc.

[7][8] The climate activist group Extinction Rebellion has criticised an agreement struck between the Adelaide Botanic Garden and the fossil fuel company Santos in 2009,[9] which saw part of a $2 million investment in the garden gifted to the museum and naming rights go to Santos until 2029.

[10] Extinction Rebellion have held numerous protests at the Museum[11] to highlight the incongruity of a fossil fuel company sponsoring an institution dedicated to conservation and biodiversity,[12] and to call on the Adelaide Botanic Garden to drop Santos as a sponsor and fully divest from the fossil fuel industry.