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Goldenseal's
Future
by Steven
Foster
Text © 2000 Steven Foster
Goldenseal (Hydrastis
canadensis) is one of the most popular herbs
sold on the American market. But why is it so
popular? What is it used for? And where is the
science to back it up? Answers to those questions
are as ambiguous as the scientific literature on
the plant. One of the big questions facing the
future of goldenseal is whether there is enough
supply, especially of wild-harvested root, to meet
the demand.
Western knowledge of
goldenseal begins about 200 years ago. Benjamin
Smith Barton's Essays Towards a Materia Medica
of the United States (published in three parts
from 1798 to 1804) is one of the first sources of
information on goldenseal. In the first part of his
Essays in 1798 he observed that the Cherokee
used it as a folk cancer remedy, which is also one
of the earliest observations of the occurrence and
treatment of cancer among American Indian groups.
An important historical use of goldenseal root is
as an eye wash for various eye problems, such as
conjunctivitis. In the third part of his Essays
(1804), Barton notes use as a bitter tonic (in
"spirituous infusion") and as a wash for eye
inflammations in a cold water infusion. "The
Hydrastis is a popular remedy in some parts of the
United States, " he observed nearly two hundred
years ago.
Use of goldenseal arises
from American Indian usage. The Cherokee used the
roots as a wash for local inflammations, a
decoction for general debility, dyspepsia, and to
improve appetite. The Iroquois used a decoction of
the root for whooping cough, diarrhea, liver
disease, fever, sour stomach, flatulence,
pneumonia, and, with whiskey, for heart
trouble.
By the late 1700s, it was
popularly used as a bitter stomach digestive (to
help stimulate digestion and improve appetite), to
treat skin inflammations, and those of the eyes. It
was also used for inflammation of the mucous
membranes of the throat and digestive system. It's
popularity as an "herbal antibiotic" has continued
to the present day, despite the fact that there has
been little scientific research on the plant. Those
who know it by reputation, however, swear by its
use.
Unfortunately, one aspect
of goldenseal that has driven the market in recent
years is the notion that goldenseal will somehow
affect the outcome of urinalysis for drug testing.
This practice is a part of American folk culture,
evolving from a novel by pharmacist John Uri Lloyd.
Stringtown on the Pike, the most popular of
his eight novels, was published in 1900. In the
plot goldenseal bitters are erroneously mistaken
for strychnine in a chemical test by an "expert"
chemical witness in a murder trial. The accused
murderer is convicted on the testimony, though the
stomach of the deceased did not contain strychnine
at all, but goldenseal, from the victim's morning
habit of drinking digestive bitters. As a result,
goldenseal became a part of American folklore
associated with chemical testing errors. It has
been used on occasions in this century to an
attempt to mask the use of morphine in race horses
(without success). Because of the practice of
ingesting goldenseal to affect the outcome of drug
testing, some drug testing labs are now testing for
presence of goldenseal in urinalysis. If this use
of goldenseal subsided, it would return to a more
rational place in herbal medicine as an
antiinflammatory and antibiotic.
The
Goldenseal Trade
Since herbs began to become popular again, from
the 1970s onward, goldenseal has been among the
most popular Native American herbs. It has been
estimated that upwards of 250,000 pounds of
goldenseal root is sold each year. Since herbs have
made the jump from the health and natural food
market to the mass market in the 1990s, goldenseal
demand has increased dramatically. Most goldenseal
is wild-harvested. Since demand has skyrocketed
(and supplies dwindle) the price of goldenseal
skyrockets too. On the wholesale level, in the
early 1990s, goldenseal root could be purchased for
as little as $8.00 to $11.00 a pound when
purchasing large quantities. Last year it shot up
to over $30.00 a pound. Now wholesale prices of
goldenseal have topped $100.00 a pound.
Botanists know the plant
as Hydrastis canadensis. It is a member of
the buttercup family that occurs in rich woods in
the eastern deciduous forest. Goldenseal occurs
from Vermont to Minnesota, south to Georgia,
Alabama, and Arkansas. As early as 1884, John Uri
Lloyd and Curtis Gates Lloyd noted dramatic
declines in wild populations, to an extent as a
result of root harvest, but more so as the result
of habitat loss through deforestation. While
over-harvesting has been blamed for supply
shortages, the Lloyd brothers paint a complex
picture of economic and social reasons for periodic
shortages providing arguments indicating that
decrease in areas or populations is not necessarily
accompanied by a decreased supply. They noted that
historically, poorer classes of people collected
the roots during times of economic hardship. Being
a minor commodity, factors would arise that would
consume the entire supply in one season, causing
shortages and a rise in price (such as we see
today). The following season, a glut in the market
would occur, and prices would drop. Collectors,
they note, then turn their attention to other
substances or pursuits. The price then stabilizes,
but stocks are exhausted, and then, as the Lloyds
put it, "history repeats itself."
This same pattern actually
occurred with Echinacea angustifolia
wild-harvested roots in the 1996 season. Roots
started out at a price of upwards of $30.00 per
pound. More root was harvested then could be sold,
and the price dropped to as low as $12.00 per
pound.
It's a matter of supply
and demand. Given the market scarcity of goldenseal
coupled with high prices, some have said that
goldenseal is becoming "endangered." Unfortunately,
the word "endangered" which should be reserved for
species in imminent danger of extinction, is thrown
about as an ambiguous word applied to any plant for
which there are conservation concerns. According to
Chris Robbins, a biologist with TRAFFIC USA, an arm
of the World Wildlife Fund, the term endangered is
over-used and inappropriately used in many
contexts.
Robbins notes that for
plant materials entering commercial trade, to
determine its status of how it is surviving,
especially if a wild-harvested species, you have to
look at numerous variables. You have to look at the
extent in international and domestic trade. You
need a series of data on the volume in trade, along
with distribution, status in cultivation, and in
the wild, of course, how does the plant reproduce,
and other ecological and biological factors that
might have an impact on its capacity to survive,
Robbins spoke before a meeting of the American
Herbal Products Association, at Expo East in
Baltimore, last October.
TRAFFIC USA is actively
involved in monitoring and policing the United
States activity in the international trade of
plants under the provisions of an international
treaty known as CITES (Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species). The U.S. is a
signatory nation. CITES (signed by over 160
countries) is the international treaty which
controls trade in natural objects with commercial
value. Animal or plant parts in CITES Appendix 1,
such as elephant ivory, are illegal in
international trade. The international trade of
American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) is
regulated under the provisions of CITES which
regulates trade through permit requirements for
imports, exports, and re-exports of listed species.
American Ginseng is listed in CITES Appendix II,
controlling and monitoring its trade "in order to
avoid utilization incompatible with [its]
survival." Harvest and commerce are regulated and
restricted both jointly and separately by state
agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and
the United States Department of Agriculture. In the
case of plants like American ginseng, this creates
a paper trail to help better determine trade
statistics, and develop biological data on the
plant.
TRAFFIC USA has submitted
a proposal to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service to
include goldenseal as a CITES Appendix II listing.
According to Chris Robbins at TRAFFIC, they have
found that significant quantities of wild-collected
goldenseal root are being exported to western
European markets. TRAFFIC EUROPE is also working to
quantify goldenseal imports into European
countries. While Robbins, admits that CITES is not
a panacea for plant conservation, it does provide a
mechanism for an interim step while other
conservation measures are being sought. If the Fish
and Wildlife Service agrees with TRAFFIC USA that
an Appendix II listing for goldenseal is in order,
then its inclusion will be formally submitted for
consideration at the next Conference to Parties of
the treaty to be held in Zimbabwe in June
1997.
According to Robbins, one
off-shoot of CITES Appendix II listing is to help
promote the artificial propagation of a species
that is primarily or mostly collected in the wild.
That process is now beginning for goldenseal. The
market shortages and high prices have prompted a
number of commercial herb growers to put it in the
ground. It's about a three year crop before the
root can be harvested. There will be significant
cultivated supplies of goldenseal within the next
three years. Until then, goldenseal will remain
scarce in the market and available only at high
prices. Ultimately, the current goldenseal shortage
is a positive thing, because it does stimulate,
finally, the large-scale commercial cultivation of
the plant.
Goldenseal is not
endangered. However, the large increase in demand,
has highlighted the need for more information on
the plant's distribution, biology, reproduction,
and ultimately the need to develop commercially
cultivated supplies of the herb to provide a
growing domestic and international market.
References
- Barton, BS 1798 &
1804. Collections for An Essay Towards A
Materia Medica of the United States. Reprint
ed. 1900. Bulletin of the Lloyd Library,
No. 1, Reproduction Series, No. 1.
- Foster, S. 1989.
Goldenseal - Masking of Drug Tests From Fiction
to Fallacy: an Historical Anomaly.
HerbalGram 21:7, 35.
- Foster, S. 1996.
Goldenseal Hydrastis canadensis.
Botanical Series, No. 309. 2nd. ed.
Austin, Tex.: American Botanical
Council.
- Lloyd, J.U. and C.G.
Lloyd. 1884-85. Drugs and Medicines of North
America. 2 vols. Cincinnati: J.U. & C.G.
Lloyd.
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