Agroforestry News (ISSN 0967-649X) Volume 24 Number 2 February 2016 _______________________________________________ Contents 2 News: Pharmabees / Darliner Farm Italy / Small forest garden – update / A new micro Forest garden 10 Book reviews: The Carbon Farming Solution / Miraculous Abundance / The Forest Garden Greenhouse / 555 Obstsorten 13 Designing an Aspen Agroforestry Scheme 21 Marsh woundwort – a forgotten food plant 25 Himalayan sea buckthorn 30 Leptospermum scoparium: Manuka / tea tree 39 Araucaria araucana photos _______________________________________________ The views expressed in Agroforestry News are not necessarily those of the Editor or officials of the Trust. Contributions are welcomed, and should be typed clearly or sent on disk in a common format. Many articles in Agroforestry News refer to edible and medicinal crops; such crops, if unknown to the reader, should be tested carefully before major use, and medicinal plants should only be administered on the advice of a qualified practitioner; somebody, somewhere, may be fatally allergic to even tame species. The editor, authors and publishers of Agroforestry News cannot be held responsible for any illness caused by the use or misuse of such crops. Editor: Martin Crawford. Publisher: Agroforestry News is published quarterly by the Agroforestry Research Trust. Editorial, Advertising & Subscriptions: Agroforestry Research Trust, 46 Hunters Moon, Dartington, Totnes, Devon, TQ9 6JT. U.K. Fax: +44 (0)1803 840776 Email: [email protected] Website: www.agroforestry.co.uk Araucaria araucana Page 40 AGROFORESTRY NEWS Vol 24 No 2 AGROFORESTRY NEWS Vol 24 No 2 Page 1 NEWS Pharmabees: Using honey bees as a drug discovery tool Les Baillie Numerous species of bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics due to their overuse, and as a consequence there is an urgent need to identify new compounds to treat human and animal pathogens. To address this issue we have recruited honeybees to help us discovery natural antibacterial plant derived compounds. Honey has been used for thousands of years to treat human infections due to its antimicrobial properties which are due to a range of factors including plant derived compounds called phytochemicals. The contribution of individual phytochemicals to the overall antibacterial activity of a particular honey will depend on the range of plants which have been visited by the bees. A well-known example of an antibacterial honey comes from New Zealand and is produced by bees foraging on the Manuka bush (Leptospermum scoparium), a plant that produces a compound called Methylgloxal and which is a potent antibiotic. In an attempt to identify additional antimicrobial phytochemicals, researchers from Cardiff University and the National Botanic Garden of Wales teamed up with the bees and beekeepers of Wales in a unique research project funded by the European Union. The project was based on the fact that the bees from a particular hive will visit the flowering plants which surround the hive and upon their return will incorporate plant derived nectar and pollen into the honey. If the nectar contained antimicrobial phytochemicals such as Methylgoxal, the resulting honey will demonstrate enhanced antimicrobial activity which can be detected using a simple laboratory test. Using this approach we screened over 200 honey samples from hives across Wales. From this collection we identified a hive in north Wales, which contained potent antibacterial phytochemicals with activity against clinically important human pathogens. Studies are currently underway to identify the nature of the compounds responsible for this activity. While our primary focus has been the characterization of phytochemicals present in the honey we were also keen to identify the plants which were the original source of these compounds. We did this because the concentration of the phytochemicals of interest were likely to be higher in the donating plant thus making them easier to extract and characterize. Fortunately honey contains a record of all of the plants which have contributed to its making in the form of pollen which contains the plants’ DNA. We are fortunate in Wales that all of the native flowering plants have been DNA barcoded and thus can be identified on the basis of unique DNA signatures. By extracting, analyzing and comparing the DNA from the pollen harvested from a single honey sample we are able to identify the donor plants. Using this approach we have been able to identify a number of plants with potent antibacterial properties. A great view of the cones on monkey puzzle (Araucaria araucana) Page 2 AGROFORESTRY NEWS Vol 24 No 2 AGROFORESTRY NEWS Vol 24 No 2 Page 39 and filling it with their droppings. This can cause complete defoliation in small plants and Thus we are working with the honeybees of Wales to survey the plants of Wales, to may even cause death. The easiest and safest means of control, if the problem is found identify new drugs that can be used to treat the people of Wales. early enough, is to remove the mass of grubs, webbing and frass with the fingers and squash it. Another prevalent pest is scale, which is usually associated with black smut Les Baillie is a Professor of Microbiology at Cardiff University. For more information causing an unsightly blackening of the foliage. Borers may also attack tea-trees and their about the project please contact: [email protected]. presence is made apparent by small piles of sawdust-like frass on the branch forks or near the base of the shrub. The safest method of control is to use a small syringe containing Source: Non-wood Forest Products Update Issue 7, FAO, February 2016. methylated spirits and squirt it into the hole made by the borer. References http://www.manukanatural.com/manuka-essential-oil-bibliography/ Darliner farm (Italy): http://www.manukanatural.com/manuka-essential-oil-bibliography/ toward self-sustaining production of food and energy http://www.manukanatural.com/manuka-essential-oil-monograph-manuka-natural/ “Darliner” is a small-scale farm constituted in 2010 by Veronica and Stefano, with their 3 young sons (Giorgio, Flavio and Emiliano). The farm is located in the southern-west part of Umbria Region, Central Italy. Around the farm, a mosaic of agroforestry systems, at different level of complexity, characterizes the rural landscape. Olive groves, often managed in combination with pasture or intercropped with cereals, and vineyards are the most common agricultural crops on hilly lands. Other crops, such as sunflower and tobacco are cultivated Courses at the Agroforestry Research Trust in 2016 in small portion of plain lands. Agricultural fields are usually alternated with wooded lands with oaks, ash, maple, etc. managed as coppice to produce fuelwood destined to local Forest Gardening / Food Forests Design Course £220.00 energy market. The overall aim of this 2½ day course is to give you an overview of how to design, implement and maintain a temperate forest garden or food forest. Course size: up to 25 Veronica and Stefano are 40 years old and were born in Rome. They moved to Umbria participants. Region about 10 years ago, wishing to find a better quality of live in a rural area in comparison to the big city, in particular for their children. The overall objective of the farmers 6-8 May 2016 is to produce enough food and energy to self-sustain the family in an environmental friendly 27-29 May 2016 way. Since Veronica and Stefano started agricultural activity without any specific 17-19 June 2016 background and experience, they began to get basic technical skills and knowledge by 15-17 July 2016 consulting their neighbour farmers. Forest Gardening / Food Forests Seminar £180.00 The farm size is about 7 ha, including the house where the family lives. About 0.7 ha are This course is for those already under way with their own forest gardens or food forests. We managed as fruit orchards in which several traditional varieties of fruit species, such also advise that you should already have attended the forest gardening course run by the as mulberry, apricot, apple, almond, quince tree, etc., are currently cultivated intercropped ART or alternatively have reasonable experience. with aspagarus and artichokes. 24-25 September 2016 Fruits are usually processed to produce delicious homemade jams. Farm includes also 0.2 ha of arable field where cereals are produced mainly to feed poultry, and legumes are grown Growing Nut Crops £180.00 for home consumption. In addition, in a small portion of the farm land, the feasibility of This weekend course will cover all aspects of growing common and uncommon nut crops in producing new products such as raspberries and other secondary products is being tested Britain, Europe and North America. and experimented with the aim to integrate farm income. 15-16 October 2016 About 4 ha of the farm land are managed with olive orchards. Olive trees comprise local and traditional varieties and are managed according to two planting schemes: in the first one about 600 trees (approximately 40 years old) are planted at a spacing of 6x6 m; in the second about 300 older olive trees are planted at wider distance (about 12x12 m) allowing the intercropping with arable crops. Page 38 AGROFORESTRY NEWS Vol 24 No 2 AGROFORESTRY NEWS Vol 24 No 2 Page 3 The bark/leaves/sap/seed capsules of manuka have been used for beverages or medicinal preparations. Decoctions of leaves used for aromatic teas for treating fevers and for treating colds, as an emetic, purgative and diuretic; oil infusion of leaves used against chronic sores. Dyeing. A yellow-green dye is obtained from manuka flowers whilst a greenish-black dye from the flowers, branches & leaves. Traditionally the tannin-rich manuka vegetation is boiled with the leaves of Phormiun tenax and plunged into mud to make a traditional black dye for bark- cloth and baskets by Maori weavers.