Subject: HELP! GOLDENSEAL MARKET INFO NEEDED!

From: [email-masked] (LANGLOIS)
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 20:53:30 GMT

Collector of wild plants wishes to know markets for goldenseal.
Please quote prices and buyers.  Collector has access to wild stock in
Northern Manitoba, Canada.  seeds, roots (fresh and dried), plant
biomass (dried).
Please repond to me via e-mail if possible as well, as I am new to
this posting business!  ([email-masked])

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From: [email-masked] (Henriette Kress)
Date: Mon, 01 Apr 1996 19:05:31 GMT

>Northern Manitoba, Canada.  seeds, roots (fresh and dried), plant

Can't say how abundant goldenseal is in your neck of the woods.
However, here's the goldenseal part of the medicinal herbfaq, so you know why
NOT to wildcraft anything but the seeds of this plant, and even that ethically:

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2.1.19 Golden Seal appeal - and Goldthread too
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Please use alternatives to Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) whenever
possible. If you have to use Goldenseal please grow your own.

Here's why:

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>From  Michael Moore ([email-masked]):

The condition of Golden Seal is DISASTROUS these days.
Most of what is on the market is being illegally poached from the
grimly diminished wild populations, since the floods and heavy
precipitation of the last couple of years has ruined a large part of
the Golden Seal that was in cultivation.

Golden Seal and Echinacea preparations are the BEST selling herb
formulas over the last several years, with every product line
brainlessly adding to the problem by HAVING to include another one in
THEIR product line...meanwhile the plants are disappearing from the
wild at an ever-quickening pace to feed our nitwit lemming marketing
fads.

Sorry...I am NOT down on wildcrafting...I have done it for almost 30
years, and taught it for over 20 years...but EVERY GODDAMN STAND of
Golden Seal that I coppiced for years in the Missouri and Arkansas
Ozarks (I use primarily the secondary leaf for fresh plant tincturing,
and rarely gather roots unless to transplant) has been wiped out in the
last four years...three years ago I found perhaps a dozen plants that
still survived in SEVEN localities in SIX counties in TWO states...
there had been thousands the year before.

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>From  Anita Hales <[email-masked]>:

There are some other plants that contain berberine, an active
constituent of Goldenseal.  I use them regularly in place of
Goldenseal. They are Goldthread and Oregon Grape, roots of both.
Goldthread is very common in my area and it is a small prolific plant.
It is a very potent medicinal plant and is good for maybe most of the
things one would use Goldenseal for.

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>From  [email-masked]:

Like Michael, I found not a single plant of wild goldenseal last summer,
despite rambling and foraging at least 400 miles last summer on
foot through some of the most remote mountainous areas of the
Northeastern US.  I found a few ginseng plants, quite a few wild
orchids, but not ONE specimen of goldenseal.  They MAY still be out
there..... we can only hope......

Like Anita I have been using gold thread (Coptis trifolia) the past
two years in place of goldenseal.

Gathering goldthread is a labor of love; carefully following those tiny
threads through the rotting leaf mold on the forest floor takes time,
if one is not to disturb the surrounding plants.  But what a way to
spend a fall day... out of the wind, sitting on the forest floor
cushioned by newly fallen leaves, soaking up the fading sun's warmth,
and gathering medicine for the coming winter.   It's not a "grab it and
dash off" kind of plant.  Maybe that "difficulty" in gathering  gold
thread will save it from the destructive overharvesting that has
decimated the goldenseal population?

Praying for spring and the return of things green, here in the frozen
north...

vicki - [email-masked]

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Henriette

--
Henriette Kress             [email-masked]            Helsinki, Finland
http://sunsite.unc.edu/herbmed FTP: sunsite.unc.edu or sunsite.sut.ac.jp
      /pub/academic/medicine/alternative-healthcare/herbal-medicine/
Medicinal and Culinary herbFAQs, plant pictures, neat stuff, archives...

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From: [email-masked] (Whitey)
Date: 2 May 1996 15:13:44 GMT

>NOT to wildcraft anything but the seeds of this plant, and even that 
ethically:
I would also note that goldenseal is listed as a threatened plant in Michigan 
and any trade in the plant should include proof that it is from a cultivated 
source.