Fw: Herbal remedies are facing stress

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From: " Myrl Jeffcoat " <myrlj@...>

Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 9:53 AM

Subject: Herbal remedies are facing stress

Herbal remedies are facing stress

http://www.msnbc.com/news/724318.asp?0si=-

Environmentalists, industryand Native Americans talk about safeguarding

species

By Bill Bergstrom

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHILADELPHIA, March 18 - Herbal shampoo and medicine makers could learn

something from American Indians about harvesting medicinal and aromatic

plants without endangering some vanishing and valuable species.

AMERICAN INDIANS gathering plants for herbal remedies take only those they

need, and utter songs and chants lamenting the sacrifice and affirming that

the plants are being harvested to relieve suffering, said Tis Mal Crow of

Speedwell, Tenn., a Western Band Cherokee healer.

" From any one area we limit the amount taken. They are taken only at certain

times of year, " Crow said. That's in contrast with some commercial

harvesters who, he said, " go in there with bulldozers and clear off whole

hillsides. "

Crow is one of 10 members of a Native American Elder Circle who take part in

a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Medicinal Plant Working Group discussing

ways to protect threatened plants. The group also includes representatives

from industry, government, academia and environmental organizations.

" Plants that our grandfathers' grandfathers respected and protected for

future generations are no longer available to us, " said Crow, author of

" Native Plants, Native Healing. " He spoke recently at a symposium the

working group helped organize on Industrial Leadership for the Preservation

of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants.

20,000 PLANT SPECIES

North American environments from alpine tundra to prairie grasslands,

coastal salt marshes and tropical rain forests have 20,000 plant species,

the working group reported in December 2000. At least 175 species are

marketed for use in over-the-counter remedies and supplements in the $3

billion U.S. medicinal herb market.

Many plants are collected from the wild in large quantities. For example,

about 65 million goldenseal plants and 34 million ginseng plants a year have

been harvested from eastern U.S. forests in recent years, according to the

report.

The two-day symposium included pharmaceutical, cosmetic, vitamin and herbal

product makers, academics, farmers and government representatives.

" We are interested in creating partnerships with as diverse a group as

possible and bringing together as many interest groups as possible, " said

Lyke, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist.

PLENTY AND SCARCITY

Some plants are plentiful enough to harvest without concern, said

McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association, a Silver

Spring, Md., trade group.

" Saw palmetto is harvested in the wild, but it's estimated that there are 4

million acres of it, " McGuffin said. " Black cohosh is one we are concerned

about. The root is the part used. End of plant. "

One presentation involved some successful efforts to cultivate black cohosh,

an eight-foot perennial with stems and roots used to treat menstrual and

digestive problems and rheumatism.

But plants such as goldenseal root, often used in combination with vitamin

C; American ginseng, marketed as an energizer and immune stimulant; and

echinacea, also sold as an immune stimulant, are considered at risk of

extinction, Crow and McGuffin said.

PRESERVATION AND PROFIT

Herbal product manufacturers' demand for plants can end up preserving

natural habitats, such as rain forests, said Dominique N. Conseil, president

of Aveda, a maker of plant-based shampoos, cleansers and cosmetics.

Conseil said that can be the result if companies show local people how to

harvest herbal products that are more profitable than logging or clearing

the land for other uses.

" Communities need to have a source of revenue. It's about developing a

source of revenue that preserves the wild, " Conseil said. " If they can make

a living from the environment without destroying it, when that works, it's

ideal. "

For some plants, the effort comes too late. Of 200 species discovered by

Meriwether and on their expedition of 1803 through 1806,

it isn't known if 30 percent still exist, said Ara DerMarderosian, a

professor of pharmacognosy, the study of drugs from natural sources, at the

University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.

One of the working group's goals is to catalog American plants,

DerMarderosian noted. " We hope they are still there. There's a lot of places

you'll go and find a parking lot. "