Some good background information Medicinal plants Some good background information

A bit of history Historically, plants have played an important role in medicine. For early peoples, they came easily to hand, and were intricately connected to diet and healing. Through observation and experimentation, they learned which plants promoted health and well-being.

More history At least 175 plants native to North America are for sale in the non-prescription medicinal market in the U.S. Many of these are collected from the wild in large quantities (hundreds of thousands of plants) for commercial markets in the U.S. and abroad.

History and Facts For example, during the last few years, about 65 million goldenseal plants and 34 million ginseng plants have been harvested from the wild in the forests of the eastern United States on an annual basis.

History and Facts In the United States, the market for medicinal herbs is worth more than $3 billion. Many of the plants supplying this industry are wild, collected in vast quantities because techniques to cultivate them on a commercial scale have not been developed. Consider the implications of such popularity for these plants.

History and Facts More than 60 million consumers in the U.S. take herbal remedies. More doctors are recommending herbal medicines and, some health insurance plans offer coverage for alternative health treatments such as herbal remedies.

History and Facts The more we use medicinal herbs on a commercial scale the more important it is to ensure that they come from sustainable sources, so that these plants will continue to exist in wild places.

Conservation If you were wildcrafting for small-scale use--for example, selecting wild plants for healing-you would collect only as much as you knew you needed without diminishing the ability of the plants to reseed and reproduce themselves.

Conservation In this way, you would ensure that your green medicine would be available when you needed it next. You also would walk carefully and lightly, being sure you did not remove or otherwise harm companion plants. You would leave the field, forest or desert where you collected these species much as you found it.

Conservation Sometimes, however, wild plants do not fare as well. Due to rapidly increasing demand and the massive scale of consumption, collectors turn out in large numbers to dig huge quantities of medicinal plants-more than their rate of reproduction can sustain. When the price of echinacea skyrocketed in the late 1990's,conservationists expressed alarm as hundreds of thousands of plants were dug throughout the American prairies.

Conservation Not much is known about continual intense harvesting of one species in an ecosystem, but great concern has been voiced. Recent research suggests that collecting five percent of mature echinacea plants would ensure a sustainable population. Yet such practices have not been standardized among all commercial collectors.

Tips to help with your research Make sure you are searching using the botanical / scientific name. Common names can be confusing The name of the drug/compound may be a long scientific name – don’t let this scare you. There may be multiple medicines found in one plant.

More tips for success It’s always nice to know which part of the plant is used. Some plants may produce usable medicines in their roots, but their leaves and fruits are highly toxic!

More tips…. The history section should be fun! Give us a nice background by telling us who used it first, and for what. This will lead into the current uses. When I ask where is it grown I want to know location – don’t tell me “It grows in the ground!”

More tips… When you discuss conservation you may want to check and see if it is legal to grow your plant yourself. Some are highly regulated and could land you in jail!!!

More tips Resources – the back center panel of your brochure is a perfect spot for your resources. If you take information from a website, even if it’s just a picture, you should cite your source. Keep track of this as you find the information!

Printing your brochure It must be printed on one piece of paper – front and back. It does not need to be in color – but I will give you 10 bonus points for color. The media center will print your brochure in color for a charge - $2.00. Don’t wait until the last minute to do this!