HerbalGram 124 • Nov 2019 – Jan 2020 124 • Nov HerbalGram Sustainable Herbs Program Overview • Forest-Grown Herbs • Guayusa Herb Profile Panda-Friendly Schisandra • Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Climate Crisis Threatens Medicinal Plants • Forest-Grown Herbs • Guayusa Herb Profile • Panda-Friendly Schisandra • Sustainable Herbs Program Overview • Where Have All the Flowers Gone? All the Flowers Have Where Overview • Schisandra • Sustainable Herbs Program • Panda-Friendly Herb Herbs Profile • Guayusa • Forest-Grown Medicinal Plants Threatens Crisis Climate The Journal of the American Botanical Council Number 124 Nov 2019 – Jan 2020 CLIMATE CRISIS THREATENS MEDICINAL PLANTS www.herbalgram.org US/CAN $6.95 Simplicity – made of plants Get the benefits of herbs without extra ingredients or processing. Since 1979, we’ve made liquid herbal extracts simply, without any extra processing or ingredients. Usually, this takes just four steps, so they include only the plant’s phytochemicals and the liquid used to extract them. Ethically-sourced ingredients and a process you trust, this is how we create wellness #MadeOfPlants. Find your herbs at herb-pharm.com Ruby walks amid towering Mullein stalks during the harvest on our Certified Organic farms in southern Oregon. 01028ADS_HerbalGramAd_Final.indd 1 2/27/18 8:58 AM American Botanical Council Mark Blumenthal dear reader Founder, Executive Director HerbalGram Editor-in-Chief This is a special issue on the impacts of climate change — what Hannah Bauman many are now referring to as the “climate crisis” — on medicinal and HerbalGram Associate Editor aromatic plants (MAPs). Like many concerned citizens, including Toby Bernal scientists, policy makers, and others, we are alarmed by the evidence Head Gardener of increasingly overwhelming changes in the Earth’s climate, much of Janie Carter which is attributable to human activity. These changes include, but are Membership Coordinator not limited to, increasing temperatures, the melting of polar ice caps Caroline Caswell and glaciers, rising sea levels, changes in weather patterns, and much Education Assistant more. We are now facing an existential threat to not only plants and Gayle Engels animals, but much, or perhaps almost all, of the biosphere itself. Special Projects Director This is not the first time we have addressed these concerns. In 2009, in HerbalGram issue 81, we Stefan Gafner, PhD published a cover article by then-Managing Editor Courtney Cavaliere on the impact of climate Chief Science Officer change on medicinal plants. To our knowledge, that was the first comprehensive, peer-reviewed Lori Glenn article on this subject. Now, 10 years later, HerbalGram Assistant Editor Connor Yearsley, Associ- HerbClip Managing Editor ate Editor Hannah Bauman, and Managing Editor Tyler Smith have written an in-depth update Sahar Hanrahan that highlights new evidence of the impacts of a changing climate on MAPs. Significant effects on Communications & plants, including phenological changes, shifting ranges, and reduced populations, have been docu- Marketing Coordinator mented in regions around the world, from the Arctic and alpine areas to tropical forests and islands. Anna Jackson This extensive article is one of the key features in this thematic issue. Executive Assistant In fact, we have dedicated almost the entire issue to this theme, including matters of conservation, Matthew Magruder sustainability, and regeneration. We have reduced or eliminated some of our usual departments in Art Director order to make more room for our coverage of these important topics. Denise Meikel This issue’s other feature article deals with the theme of wild North American medicinal forest Development Director plants. Holly Chittum, MS, an expert on this subject, and co-authors Eric Burkhart, PhD, John Jenny Perez Munsell, PhD, and Steven Kruger, PhD, provide an in-depth view of the benefits and challenges Education Coordinator related to forest-grown medicinal botanicals. North American forest herbs have been a part of global Tamarind Reaves trade since the 17th century, and their increased popularity in recent years has led to sustainability Administrative Assistant concerns. Responsible forest farming may help ensure a sustainable supply of these botanicals. HerbalGram Copy Editor In November 2018, we announced that ABC had partnered with Ann Armbrecht, PhD, to form Perry Sauls the Sustainable Herbs Program (SHP), a new educational initiative under ABC’s aegis. Ann, who Customer Service has a doctorate in anthropology from Harvard, created the Sustainable Herbs Project before join- Coordinator ing with ABC. (For various reasons, we believed that “Program” was a more apt name for this new Tyler Smith venture.) In the ensuing year, Ann, along with ABC trustee and acclaimed medicinal plant author HerbalGram Managing Editor and photographer Steven Foster, members of the ABC staff, and others, helped produce new videos Cecelia Thompson and articles for the SHP website, newsletter, and blog. Finance Coordinator SHP’s mission deals not only with ecological issues related to the climate crisis and the need for Margaret Wright medicinal plant conservation and sustainable/regenerative practices, but also the lives and welfare of Accounting Coordinator the people involved in all aspects of botanical value networks (supply chains), including harvesting, Connor Yearsley cultivation, processing, and production of medicinal plants and their value-added finished prod- HerbalGram Assistant Editor ucts. SHP is deeply anthropocentric, with the hope that increased industry and consumer attention to these issues will result in enhanced revenues and quality of life for people in the value network. Part of the input for SHP comes from a group of 17 highly experienced individuals who form what we are calling the SHP Advisory Group. This issue presents brief biographies of the inaugural members, each of whom has considerable expertise in sourcing, conservation, and/or sustainability of medicinal plants. A tip of the hat as well to the SHP Inaugural Underwriters: herb industry members that were the first to provide financial resources to allow ABC to take on and steward SHP and its compelling agenda. One of the initial members of the SHP Advisory Group is our good friend and collaborator Josef Brinckmann, also a longtime member of the ABC Advisory Board, who has written a guest editorial titled “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” after folksinger Pete Seeger’s classic song, on the climate crisis and its relevance to MAPs and our lives in general. We are profoundly grateful to Josef for his many contributions to this issue, also including the herb profile on guayusa that he and collabora- tor Thomas Brendler provided. Mission: Provide education using science-based and traditional information to promote responsible use of herbal medicine—serving the public, researchers, educators, healthcare professionals, industry, www.herbalgram.org • 2019 • I SSUE 124 • 1 and media. ABCEach issue of HerbalGramAdvisory is peer reviewed Board by members of the ABC Advisory Board and other qualified experts before publication. Donald I. Abrams, MD Alan Bensoussan, PhD Thomas J.S. Carlson, MS, MD Hardy Eshbaugh, PhD Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Director, National Institute of Complementary Associate Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Integrative Professor Emeritus, Miami University California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA Medicine, University of Western Sydney Biology; Director, Center for Health, Ecology, Oxford, OH Sydney, Australia Biodiversity, & Ethnobiology; Curator of Hamid-Reza Adhami, PhD, PharmD Trish Flaster, MS Ethnobotany, University and Jepson Herbaria; Assistant Professor, Dept. of Pharmacognosy Chantal Bergeron, PhD Executive Director, Botanical Liaisons, LLC University of California, Berkeley, CA Tehran University of Medical Sciences Manager, Disruptive Innovation & Product Boulder, CO Tehran, Iran Development, Personal & Home Care Products, Nadja B. Cech, PhD Paula M. Gardiner, MD, MPH Seventh Generation, Burlington, VT Patricia A. Sullivan Distinguished Professor of Bharat (Bart) B. Aggarwal, PhD Assistant Professor, Dept. of Family Medicine Chemistry, The University of North Carolina at Founding Director, Inflammation Research Lori L. Bestervelt, PhD Boston University Medical School, Boston, MA Greensboro, Greensboro, NC Institute, San Diego, CA Executive VP and Chief Technical Officer Zoë Gardner, PhD NSF International Il-Moo Chang, PhD Lise Alschuler, ND Consultant, Greenfield, MA Ann Arbor, MI Director, Korea-China Collaboration Center for Naturopathic Specialists, Scottsdale, AZ; Traditional Oriental Medicine Research; Professor Patricia L. Gerbarg, MD Assistant Director of the Fellowship in Integrative Joseph M. Betz, PhD Emeritus, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry, New Medicine, Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Acting Director, Office of Dietary Supplements York Medical College; Co-Chair of the Caucus on Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ US National Institutes of Health Robert G. Chapman, PhD Complementary & Integrative Medicine of the Bethesda, MD Chief Operating Officer, Dosecann Inc., Cindy K. Angerhofer, PhD American Psychiatric Association, Kingston, NY Charlottetown, PEI, Canada Executive Director of Botanical Research, Aveda John A. Beutler, PhD Gabriel I. Giancaspro, PhD Minneapolis, MN Associate Scientist, Molecular Targets Lab National Chun-Tao Che, PhD VP, Foods, Dietary Supplements and Herbal