ginseng, echinacea, ginkgo - visit your local drug store or supermarket
and you'll find large quantities of these products on the shelves, intermingled
with old favorites like aspirin. Medicinal
plants are used commercially, thanks to contributions of traditional cultures
worldwide, modern medicine, and pharmacognosy.
Without plants, most medicines
you take would not exist. Over 40% of medicines now prescribed in the
U.S. contain chemicals derived from plants. Historically, plant medicines
were discovered by trial and error. Our ancestors noticed that aches and
pains went away when they drank tea made from the bark of a willow tree.
Later, scientists found that willow bark contains salicylic acid, the
active ingredient in aspirin.
This process continues today.
Throughout the world,
including the wild places in the U.S., botanists and chemists search the
plant kingdom for new medicines. They sometimes find treasures in other
people's trash. For years, the native Pacific yew was burned as trash
generated by logging operations in the Pacific Northwest. In 1975, a substance
in its bark, taxol, was found to reduce the production of cancerous tumors.
A comprehensive search of known
plants for medicinal chemicals is an enormous task. Of the estimated 250,000
plant species on earth, only 2% have been thoroughly screened for chemicals
with potential medicinal use. Because native plant habitats are destroyed
almost daily, many medicinally valuable plants will be gone before scientists
can even investigate them.
medicines have we already lost? How many more remain to be found?
CURRENT FIELD PROJECTS
2011 Medicinal Plant Working Group
CITIZEN SCIENTISTS NEEDED!
- Participate in the continuation of long-term field studies located in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests of Virginia to monitor black cohosh:
- Reddish Knob JUNE 16-19, 2011 - Details
- Mt. Rogers JULY 14-17, 2011 - Details
Come one day or come all! Volunteers attending the entire 4-days of either field site will earn a Volunteer Citizen Scientist Certificate. To register, or for any questions, click here.
MPWG has conducted inventory and monitoring projects on medicinal
plants since 2000. These projects continue, thanks to the hard work
of Dr. James Chamberlain of the U.S. Forest Service and numerous volunteers. Read the Announcements & Summaries from previous seasons.