Establishing a Collaborative Chinese Medicinal Herb Project

Western North Carolina has a long history and reputation as a source of high quality, native medicinal herbs.  For centuries, herbs such as ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) and black cohosh (Actaea racemosa) have been wild-harvested from the forests for sale around the world.  The region is also home to many natural health practitioners and schools of herbalism. Over the past fifteen years, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of acupuncturists, Chinese medicinal herb practitioners, and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) schools in the region.  There is also a major TCM product distributor.  Almost all of the herbs used in TCM in the U.S. are currently imported.  Rising concerns over the quality and safety of these imported herbs, and the buy local movement, have fueled demand for domestically produced Chinese medicinal herbs.  In response to this demand, a diverse group of people in the region representing two community colleges, county and state level extension, herb growers, herbalists, a Chinese medicinal herb school, a TCM distributor, and a renewable energy center, have come together to start a Chinese medicinal herb growing, marketing, and research project.  For over fifteen years, Jean Giblette of High Falls Gardens in New York has been working with a small group of university faculty, TCM practitioners, and medicinal herb growers across the U.S. to establish a domestic supply of Chinese medicinal herbs.  She met with our group, toured several of the farm sites and helped us develop a plan for our project.  Upon her advice, we chose ten popular TCM herbs to grow on six farms and one research station. These include Anemarrhena, Angelica, Astragalus, Chrysanthemum, Lycium, Paeonia, Pinella, Polygonum, Schizandra, and Scutellaria.  One of the community colleges is producing plants in tissue culture while some of the growers and my staff are producing transplants and cuttings.  The other community college will do analytical testing of constituents in its natural products laboratory.  The TCM distributor and the Chinese medicinal herb school will provide organoleptic testing. A variety of workshops for growers, herbalists, buyers, and consumers will be conducted.  Several multi-state grant proposals on Chinese medicinal herbs are pending.  If funded, these trials will be incorporated into those projects.