Steven Foster's Blog, page 6

Poppies and People

by Steven Foster |

Opium poppy, Papaver sominferum in bloom

Last week a bar conversation switched from the politics of medical marijuana to opium poppies, with someone asking lead question, “has anyone of you here ever seen an opium poppy?” “All of you have,” I replied. “They are a very common garden ornamental in Eureka Springs, in fact in every small town in America. The plant, an annual, Papaver somniferum self-sows and grows on it’s own. When I first met Dr. James A. Duke in 1978, (with whom I coauthored the Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants: Eastern and Central North America, 3rd ed. in press, due April 2014, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), he had spent several years working on opium poppy germplasm collections for USDA in pre-revolutionary Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan; the region of the world where the genus Papaver  is native and has the greatest genetic diversity. Opium derivatives are used in every hospital in the world (assuming they have economic access).

The opium poppy Papaver somniferum is the source of several alkaloids used chiefly to relieve pain, the most important of which are morphine, codeine, noscapine, papaverine and thebaine, all extracted from crude opium, the dried white latex produced by the plant to make legal, pain-relieving drugs. Morphine was first isolated in 1806. Since ancient times, with origins lost in pre-history, opium and it’s derivatives have been a blessing and curse for humankind; a blessing in relief of severe pain, and a curse given physical addiction and potential for abuse. Opium use has brought down civilizations. Invented in 1898, heroin a more bioavailable form of morphine in which acetyl chains were added to the molecule, was routinely used in minute amounts for treatment of coughs (in place of codeine), during the first years of the 20th century. It was available in pharmacies as an over-the-counter cough remedy into the nineteen teens!  Around 1910 reports in medical journals began to associate heroin with  abuse and addiction. Finally, in 1924 it was banned from manufacture in the United States.

Currently over half of the world’s legal opium supply comes from the Australian island state of Tasmania, where about 500 farmers grow opium poppies on 49,420 acres of land. Today, we fight a war in Afghanistan where the opponent (the Taliban) is funded by sale of crude opium and opiate derivatives such as heroin. So I ask, since we have spent at least 700 billion dollars in Afghanistan since 2001, why don’t we just take a meager half-billion, and simply buy Afghan’s opium crop each year. That would cut funding to the Taliban, dramatically cut the world’s illicit heroin supply, and provide raw material for manufacturing legitimate opiate drugs used in EVERY HOSPITAL IN THE WORLD.  Or, we could just destroy it—a cheap remedy. No, political stupidity is too entrenched to follow a logical approach.

Mac Turns 30—Will You Celebrate Your PCs Birthday?

By Steven Foster |

Steven Foster with Mac SE 1989

Happy 30th birthday Mac! I was a late-comer to the Mac. My first Mac—a MacIntosh SE—was purchased in 1987, three years after the first Mac appeared on the market. I was ecstatic. Before the Mac I owned a Morrow computer, running on the CPM operation system,  the then competitor with DOS, the operating system developed by Bill Gates and friends (I believe DOS stands for “Dinosaur Operating System”). Those of you who still suffer with  PCs (Primitive Computers) running fogged-up, dirty, cracked Windows (Why Indeed Never Do Outstanding Work) in its various iterations continue to amaze me. You defend yourselves with the tired old arguments from the 1990s with little clue as to why you actually cling to “much cheaper” (in all respects) PCs and their operating system, produced without one byte of creativity.

Every time I get on a PC it reminds me of using my first CPM computer back in the early 80s.  The frustration of trying figure out how to do something as simple as print a document resulted in broken spines on all of my CPM software manuals caused by hurling them against a brick wall. OK, “I’m a Mac” (snob) and “you’re a PC.” I feel real empathy for you. It’s like the difference between being a Progressive and being a Tea Party delusionist—the gulf will never be bridged. Hmmm, I wonder how many tea baggers use Macs. . . ?

Let me ask a simple question.  Will you be celebrating the birthday of your first Dell, HP, or off-brand PC?

 

Guide to Prime Time Ginseng Poaching

By Steven Foster |

Hey Y’all! You don’t have to be a bearded blowhard bigot chokin’ on duck call drool to make piles of money on a cable network. Nope, no need for swamp water squishin’ between ‘yur  toes! There’s a new opportunity in them ‘thar hills to show the world just how much of a thrill-seekin’, not-too-bright, thief you can be in your quest to show how every conceivable aspect of greed can drive a conservationist to drink. Join the fun! Just plop yourself in front of the boob tube with a can of your favorite brand of American-made world’s-worst-beers and point the satellite dish to the History Channel on Thursday nights, 10 p.m. eastern, 9 central, to see a new episode of Appalachian Outlaws. The show premiered on January  9, 2014. Seems like them big city producers don’t get out of their offices much. Youins would think they never heard the word “stereotype.”

The first episode, “Dirty Money” follows the exploits of ‘sengers in the field trying to steal roots from Federal lands or posted private lands better suited to pot farming. In the first six minutes of the show, a generic ‘seng hunter, shows the viewer just how adulteration of herbs occurs in the real world through plant misidentification in the field. He misrepresents a doll’s eye plant in fruit (Actaea pachypoda) as black cohosh (Actaea racemosa). A landowner  shows how to make mini-landmines from a shotgun shell to catch ‘seng poachers tiptoeing down his path to steal his patch of wild ginseng. Tune in next week to see if they can blow a big toe off a poacher’s foot !  The next episode, “Ginseng Fever,” due to air January 16, 2014, will show how ruthless ‘seng hunters and dealers will go to great lengths to protect their interests. Praise the lord and pass the roll of cash!

This is great reality TV for helping viewers understand what really goes on in the field when harvesting high-value wild herbs.  In a 45 minute episode, the History Channel provides convincing evidence of why the US Fish and Wildlife Service—the Federal Agency charged with assuring sustainability of ginseng (Panax quinquefolius)—should be forced to ban wild ginseng harvest altogether! Current USFWS ginseng resource information plus laws & regulations are found here. This show will be a boon for plant conservationists and an unfortunate boondoggle for the wild ginseng industry. 

If you miss an episode,  just search on-line for the History Channel’s Appalachian Outlaws. Full episodes are available on-demand. Thank you History Channel!

 

 

 

Exciting New Kava Study on Lung Cancer Prevention

By Steven Foster

Kava, Piper methysticum

According to an 8 January 2014 member advisory  release by the American Botanical Council (ABC), in Austin, Texas, researchers from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy and Masonic Cancer Center reported findings of a study published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research yesterday which found daily consumption of a kava-derived dietary supplement prevented the formation of 99 percent of tumors in a mouse lung tumor model used to predict lung cancer  in humans. Positive animal studies usually suggest further research leads, but this study shows such a significant benefit that further development will be accelerated. The levels of success is reported with a patent-pending extract of Kava components, not currently available off-the-shelf Kava dietary supplement products.

A traditional ceremonial beverage of South Pacific societies, Kava (Piper methysticum) is widely consumed in Vanuata, Fiji and Western Somoa, whose populations have lung cancer rates just 5-10 percent of U.S. lung cancer rates despite similar levels of tobacco consumption. Here are links to our photo galleries of the Kava plant, the root of Kava, and a Kava ceremony.

According to Stefan Gafner, Chief Science Officer of ABC, “The fact that the researchers were able to find evidence of the ability of a kava fraction to prevent the formation of tumors in mice, in support of epidemiological data showing a lower incidence of lung cancer in people living on the South Pacific Islands where kava is traditionally used, makes this study very compelling. If confirmed in human clinical studies, the results could have a big impact on human health and may lead to a greater emphasis on prevention rather than cure.”

In the January 8th member advisory  release, the Austin, Texas-based American Botanical Council, quotes Prof. Bill Gurley PhD, professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the College of Pharmacy of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock and a leading expert on herb toxicology. Prof Gurley reviewed the study and commented to ABC, “…the findings are both compelling and certainly merit further research in order to translate them into the clinic. The findings are a breath of fresh air for kava, in particular, and botanical supplements, in general. Recently supplements have suffered quite a bit of negative publicity — some of it deserved, some not — but the kava study from the University of Minnesota emphasizes what good science coupled with quality botanicals can produce.”

“This is highly interesting research and suggests a potential new use for certain preparations made from kava root and rhizome,” said Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of the nonprofit American Botanical Council (ABC).

Rick Kingston, PharmD, a clinical professor of pharmacy at the University of Minnesota and president of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs at SafetyCall International in Minneapolis, commented “This research is truly unprecedented in its potential impact. A 99% cancer prevention efficacy is unheard of with this very sensitive research model and paves the way for future clinical trials to assess human applications. Another fascinating aspect relates to identifying kava components likely responsible for rare cases of liver toxicity associated with kava dietary supplements. Fortunately, the risk of kava liver complications is low, but this will allow development of supplement preparations devoid of [compounds that may cause] adverse liver effects that can be used for both anti-anxiety and wellness applications in the supplement arena.”

Scientists collaborating in this research include lead authors Pablo Leitzman and Sreekanth Narayanapillai in the U of M College of Pharmacy (Chengguo Xing Group), and their peers in the U of M Masonic Cancer Center (Stephen Hecht Group), U of M College of Veterinary Medicine (M. Gerry O’Sullivan) and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (Junxuan Lu). Funding for this research was provided by National Institutes of Health grant no. R01 CA142649.

Those interested in keeping up-to-date on timely,  important developments in herbal medicine research, authoritative information on herbs, and who wish to  receive the award-winning, graphically-compelling journal, HerbalGram, are encouraged to join the .

Heavenly Bamboo — Nandina domestica

 By Steven Foster

Heavenly Bamboo – Nandina domestica

Whether you follow ancient pagan traditions, the Roman Saturnalia, or just good old Christian Christmas, it is the time of the winter festival marked by the concurrent astronomical shift of the Winter solstice. In 274 C.E., the Roman Emperor Aurelian is christened the 25th of December the day of the solstice on the Julian calendar—natalis solis inviciti—“birth of the invincible sun.” Just two years earlier, the 57th Emperor of the Roman Empire was born, Constantine I, who was to usher in a new epoch as the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity. The December 25th celebration of the “birth of the invincible sun” was easily transformed into the Christian celebration of the “birth of the invincible Son.”  Remnants of ancient traditions Winter Solstice celebration, crept into Christmas traditions, many revived during the Victorian era when the printed word, advertising and the emergence of consumerism allowed for expansion of celebration in a wider cultural convergence. Hence the Yule log, the symbolic mistletoe, the evergreen leaves and red berries of hollies, implanted themselves into new traditions marking this celebratory time of year.  Green and red became the primary colors of the celebration, dating back to at least the 14th century, when evergreen trees, with red apple affixed to the branches represented green as eternal life and red as the blood of Christ.

With its evergreen leaves and red berries, why not adopt our garden plant heavenly bamboo or Nandina domestica as a new seasonal symbol? Introduced into European horticulture in 1804, it is native to China and Japan. In China it is symbolic of the Chinese New Year. Writing in 1848, Robert Fortune, observed, “Large quantities of its branches are brought at this time from the country and hawked about the streets. Each of these branches is crowned with a large bunch of red berries, not very unlike those of the common holly, and, contrasted with the dark, shining leaves, are singularly ornamental.  It is used chiefly in the decoration of altars, not only in temples, but also in private dwellings and in boats—for here every house and boat has its altar.”

In ancient China the woody stem was carved into a gourd-shaped charm and hung around the necks of children to ward-off whooping cough. It was planted in gardens around homes to prevent the spread of fire. In Japanese gardens it was planted next to outdoor wash basins to protect against evil influences. The woody stems have also been used in China to make chopsticks. In north China, it is commonly grown as a houseplant.

Names of plant parts in Traditional Chinese Medicine include: Nan-tian-zhu-zi (fruits); Tian-zhu-zi (fruits); Nan-tian-zhu (plant); Nan-tian-zhu-ye (leaves); Nan-tian-zhu-gen (root). The leaves, stems and fruit all serve as minor folk medicines in Chinese tradition, usually prescribed only by an experienced practitioner because of potential toxicity of alkaloids in the fruits. The fruits are first mentioned in Kai Bao Ben Cao  (Materia Medica of the Kai Bao Era), attributed to Ma Zhi, and published during the Song dynasty in 973 A.D.  The use of the leaves is first noted in Ben Cao Gang Mu Shi Yi (Omissions from the Grand Materia Medica), authored by Zhao Xue-min, published in 1765 during the Qing dynasty. Traditionally, a gourd-shaped charm of the wood was made and hung around the neck of a child to ward-off whooping cough.  Ancient ben-cao mention the planting of heavenly bamboo in gardens to prevent fire.  Historically, it has also been planted next to wash-basins in Japanese gardens to protect against evil. The fruit is used for chronic cough, asthma, whooping cough, malaria, and ulcer of penis. They are also said to be useful in restoring the nervous system, quieting drunkards, and have been used as an antidote to fish poisoning.  Folk tradition holds that the seeds increase virility. Leaves: used for the common cold, whooping cough, red eye, swelling with pain, scrofula, bloody urine, and infantile malnutrition. Root: used for headache due to wind and heat, cough due to lung heat, jaundice, with wetness and heat, rheumatism with pain, red eyes, carbuncle and furuncles, and scrofula. Root and stem: used for fevers, the common cold,  conjunctivitis, cough due to lung heat, jaundice with wetness heat, acute gastroenteritis, infection of the urinary tract, and traumatic injuries. For more information on this fascinating plant see my book: Herbal Emissaries: Bringing Chinese Herbs to the West (with Yue Chongxi, Healing Arts Press, Rochester Vermont, 1992).

As we enjoy the visual beauty of these red clusters of fruits through the winter months, let us remember its origins. No matter the tradition, time of year or culture  remember the past and celebrate new beginnings.

William S. Coperthwaite • 1930-2013

By Steven Foster.

“I want to live in a society where people are intoxicated with the joy of making things.” — William S. Coperthwaite • 1930-2013.

Bill Coperthwaite making a birch broom, strip-by-strip.

William S. Coperthwaite, age 83, was gathered on 26 November 2013 in a one-car accident not far from his home at Dickinson’s Reach, Bucks Harbor, near Machiasport, Maine. Bill Coperthwaite was one of those ageless beings one could not peg to a generation. His lifelong passion was teaching others to learn by connecting their brains with their hands to create useful objects, be that a crooked knife, a dwelling, a boat or a poem.

Best-known as the conceptualizer of the modern yurt, he was inspired by the utilitarian design of the Mongolian yurt seen in a 1962 issue of National Geographic. Bill took the basic design concept—a round simple building whose structure was maintained with a tension band—turning it into a practical modern dwelling for simple living. He built over 300 yurts throughout the world, each one incorporating variations on the basic structural design concept, producing temporary or lasting structures of extraordinary beauty.

Bill Coperthwaite inside a laced panel folding yurt at the Common Ground Fair in Maine, 1978. We built two yurts in two days, designed to fold, put in a pick-up truck and take to an event.

A designer, thinker, writer, builder, and student; above all, Bill was an educator. He built his first yurt at Buck’s Harbor in 1964, a simple open weave structure with a birch bark roof. He lived off the grid on one of the last undeveloped bays on the Maine coast. In 1960 he purchased 500 acres, with nearly five miles of coast line. He joked that he only had fifteen-hundred dollars, so at three dollars per acre, it was all that he could afford. To visit Bill, one had to hike in about 2 miles or travel 3 miles by sea to reach his home. He had no phone. He had no email address. In his adult life, he had no electricity (though he was not adverse to stopping by for a visit and catching a movie on TV).  It was wise to write a few weeks ahead of time before planning a visit. Bill Coperthwaite traveled the world seeking out the best artisan of a particular knife form, basket, box, boat, chair or other utilitarian object. In the early 1970s, soon after receiving a doctorate in education from Harvard University, he gathered-up Eskimo artifacts from museums in the United States and Canada and took them on a traveling exhibit to Eskimo villages in northwestern North  America. William S. Coperthwaite is the author of A Handmade Life: In Search of Simplicity (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004 hardcover; 2007 softcover).

Bill Coperthwaite mooring Son Fjord boat, October 1978.

Yurt built at Elixir Farm, Brixey, Missouri in workshop with Bill Coperthwaite, Colin Foster, and Clear Spring School students, 2003.

On a personal note, I met Bill when I was 17 years old, while working at the Shaker Community at Sabbathday Lake, Maine. A larger-than-life personality, with thoughtful and energetic inspiration, he had a profound impact on my life. From 1974-1978, I helped in the construction of six yurts in New England, and 35 years ago this month, I met up with Bill to assist at a yurt workshop in Reeds Spring, Missouri. That is how I arrived in the Ozarks. In 2003 he returned to the Ozarks and led a yurt workshop for my son, Colin, and his class at the Clear Spring School. The boat pictured below is named for the Norwegian fjord on which it was built, Son Fjord. Bill built this square-rigged single sail, two person oar-powered, fishing vessel. It was extraordinarily stable, fast and maneuverable. One person operating the vessel with oars could speed past two people pumping hard with paddles in a canoe. He talked me into investing $200 in the boat. Rich memories of Bill flood my mind—his hearty sparkle-eyed laugh and Yankee prudence; conversations now silent, questions unasked. I have an envelope from him in my unopened mail. I can only answer with a joyous smile for having known this extraordinary human.

Bill Coperthwaite, August 1979, photo shoot highlighting design and lines of the counterweighted, narrow-feathered, Norwegian oars.

Norwegian Son Fjord, built by William S. Coperthwaite. A calm morning on the Atlantic Ocean, Yurt Foundation, Dickinson’s Reach, Bucks Harbor, Maine. ©1978 Steven Foster.

Loving Latin

By Steven Foster.

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“Sage” as Artemisia tridentata from drylands of the American West.

Ah the romance of language, or better yet the Romance languages, a mixing pot derived from vulgar Latin (or vulgaris meaning common), which evolved from the sixth to ninth centuries, to become the five most widely spoken Romance languages of Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian.  After the fall of the Roman Empire, Latin persisted as the language of scholarship and administration, still used today as the foundation for scientific names in biology and astronomy. The value of classical Latin in naming is that it has essentially been a universal communication tool crossing barriers of time and language for millennia.

Pronunciation is dictated by the local language. There is no correct pronunciation, only convention that forms as habit. For example, we pronounce the Latin genus name Echinacea as “ek-i-NAY-see-a.” Without even thinking about it, we pronounce an obvious “cha” sound—“ch”—as a classical Latin hard “k” sound for “ch”. That is force of habit. Conversely, we use a vernacular English pronunciation for the Latin name of pine trees. In the genus name Pinus, we pronounce a long “I” sound, rather than using classical Latin pronunciation in which the long “I” would be pronounced  as an uncouth long “E”.  Yes, we still suffer from Victorian influences. The pronunciation is just another taste treat. Just let it roll across your tongue, because there is no “correct” pronunciation.

Latin or scientific names of plants or animals allow us to communicate the similarity or differences of one organism compared to another with a single universal language tool. That is the beauty of Latin, alive as scientific names that are both fun and specific.

Ad nauseum—now there’s a good Latin phrase to describe how people throw around words like “cedar” and “sage” to refer to large numbers of biological entities as it they were somehow related. Would you call a semitrailer truck a motorcycle, or vice versa (more Latin) just because both have motors and wheels?  We call our predominant Ozark conifer “red cedar” but it is really a juniper— Juniperus virginiana. Our common garden sage is Salvia officinalis, a species from the eastern Adriatic coast. If you buy a good ‘ol New Age bundle of “sage” for ceremony, you likely get the ubiquitous Western North American species Artemisia tridentata. Calling these completely unrelated plants “sage” or “cedar” is like calling a male human “boy” or summoning a stranger with “hey you.”

Adapted from “Eureka Nature” column in the 20 November 2013 Eureka Springs Independent Newspaper.

 

“Science” as Fiction Update

By Steven Foster.

All is not as it seems . . .

Nature is clean. Nature is pure. Nature is unspoiled. And if you believe that, I would like to sell you beach front property on the Moon. When we buy something labeled natural or labeled organic, that product or food category, whatever it may be, comes with an underlying expectation of integrity, honesty, truthfulness and reliability. The same expectations holds true for scientific literature, in which a process of peer review, critique of theory, vigilance of methodology and veracity of conclusions assumes that the published findings are upheld at least by the reputations of researcher(s), editor(s), and publisher(s). These are general, if naive expectations and beliefs that we hold that things are what they seem to be. Yes, it’s true. I’m a happy curmudgeon and skeptic.

Early in my career, I became intrigued by concepts related to quality, identity, and labeling of herb products. At the time I worked at the Herb Department of the Sabbathday Lake Maine Shaker Community, whose history dated back to the late eighteenth century. When I was there direct expertise in herb production no longer existed. During that time from 1974-1978, I learned by trial and error. We had a catnip tea product. The catnip I grew had a strong, aromatic fragrance, typical of catnip rich in essential oil. We sold more than we were able to grow. We had to buy bulk catnip that turned out to be left over stem and stubble from seed production. No self-respecting cat would respond to a cat toy filled with these floor sweepings.  In the company of cats, my homegrown catnip turned me into a feline pied piper. Both samples were catnip, but the quality was dramatically different. I find the same is true of published science—some is high quality. Some science is floor sweepings, created by “experts” in a narrow scientific specialty who think that they can magically transform their methods into areas of other scientific disciplines of which they are clueless, then draw conclusions, in which they prove their lack of knowledge as evidenced by their sloppy work. Would you send an entomologist in space to repair the Hubble Telescope? Of course, pride and reputation machismo prevent the authors and journals from retracting their errors.

If there’s a buck to be made, someone is going to find away to make that buck. If you don’t know what it is that you’re buying, the possibility of not getting what you expect increases. With the pressure for academics to publish or perish, I promise you, if your study is rejected by one journal, no problem, as you can always finds a journal happy to take your scientific paper no matter what the quality of the science might be. The bottom line is that you can’t always believe what you read whether it’s at website, words on a product label, “science” in a scientific paper, or reporting on a scientific paper, even if it part of “all the news that is NOT fit to print.” My next post will have the details.

I have come to believe that the only published word that is what it seems to be is fiction.

Adapted from my “Eureka Nature” column in the Eureka Springs Independent Newspaper for 6 November 2013. This entry is also an opinion piece sparked by this response to a scientific paper.

Ginkgo Leaves Falling

By Steven Foster.

The brilliant golden yellow leaves of the Ginkgo trees flanking the back entrance of our local post office, once they are ready to fall, will  drop in a few hours time, raining from the thick branches like small fans twirling from the sky. After our first hard killing freeze last night, the Ginkgo leaves fell today.

Ginkgo tree with golden leaves on 11 November 2013

The same Ginkgo tree on 13 November 2013, minus its leaves.

The shriveling fruits, which look like half-sized wild persimmons, may persist for a few days after the leaves, then fall to the ground. Fruits are always a tempting curiosity. In fact, you can buy Ginkgo seeds as a food item in Chinese markets, but these have been prepared and processed to render them safe to eat. You should not be tempted to pick-up the freshly fallen fruits, which will cause contact dermatitis similar to the rash produced by poison ivy. The fruits have a fragrance that has been described as a blend between baby vomit and what a dog might leave on a sidewalk. That should be enough to entice you to leave them be.

I suspect that these trees were planted about the time the Eureka Springs Post Office building was completed in 1918, rather than in 1973 when the building was expanded and the service parking lot in the back was developed. The trees are of a fairly good size, plus for many decades most ginkgo trees available from nurseries in the United States have represented male branches grafted on to rootstocks. Within forty years after Ginkgos were widely planted as a street tree by the mid 1800s, female trees like those at Eureka Spring’s Post Office began to leave their bad smelling fruits on sidewalks. Female Ginkgos are simply not a neat and tidy street tree. Notwithstanding the beauty of the fall foliage, the fact that these two trees are females makes them a unique and interesting part of Eureka  Springs’ heritage.

Beneath the Ginkgo tree, 13 November 2013

Ginkgo was common 175 to 200 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth.  This primitive tree is considered the oldest living tree species on earth.  Ginkgo is monotypic. That is, in the ginkgo family there is only one species in one genus — the only surviving member of the ancient and primitive ginkgo family—Ginkgoaceae. Ginkgo has been cultivated in East Asia for hundreds of years. Numerous reports mention the existence of large specimens, some more than a thousand years old, at ancient temples in Japan and China. The tree was first introduced to North America in 1784 in the garden of William Hamilton at Woodlands near Philadelphia.  Mature ginkgos are said to reach over 100 feet in height.  Its longevity as individual trees and a species in general can in part be attributed to its exceptional resistance to pests and resiliency to destruction by fire. It is also extremely tolerant of air pollution thriving in the harshest urban environments.

Ginkgo leaf extracts are highly complex, highly concentrated preparations with an average  ratio of 50 parts ginkgo leaf to one part of the finished extract by weight. Numerous chemical constituents are found in the extract. Normally ginkgo leaf extracts are calibrated to contain 24 percent flavone glycosides (but may range from 22 to 25 percent) which are a relatively ubiquitous group of compounds found in numerous plant species.  Another important compound group in ginkgo leaf extracts are mostly unique to ginkgo — the ginkgolides — including ginkgolides A, B, and C (around 3 percent) and bilobalide (also about 3 percent). As the oldest living tree species on earth, it is no surprise that it would harbor chemical components rare in nature. Perhaps these extremely complex, large molecules have helped it survive for eons. In addition, during the manufacturing process another group of compounds, ginkgolic acids, which are perceived as potentially toxic, are reduced to below 5 parts per million. Given the specific chemical make-up of ginkgo leaf extracts, it  becomes clear why you can’t apply the results of studies with Ginkgo leaf extracts to a simple tea made from ginkgo leaves. Numerous pharmacological and clinical studies on Ginkgo leaf extracts have demonstrated a positive effect in increasing vasodilation and peripheral blood flow rate in capillary vessels and end-arteries in various circulatory disorders, varicose conditions, post-thrombotic syndrome, chronic cerebral vascular insufficiency, short-term memory improvement, cognitive disorders secondary to depression, dementia, tinnitus, vertigo, antioxidant activity, among other effects.

Go Wild

By Steven Foster.

The fading light of an earlier sunset glows pumpkin orange through the brilliant fall foliage. There’s something about the light at this time of year that portends winter’s comfort warmth. The harvest is in. The chorus of geese en masse cuts through cold clear nights. Chiggers and ticks are mostly gone. Solitary cold blooded reptiles slither toward their winter dens, where they will huddle together for the winter. Time to head back to the woods.

We all need a little more contact with nature.  In just one generation our collective kids have lost touch with nature in favor of electronic screens. Part of the problem is risk-adverse adults telling kids that nature is dirty and dangerous. This is the perfect time of year to encourage kids (of all ages, you included) to get out and spend 30 minutes a day romping or roaming—just being in nature.

Starting around 2004 scientific studies began to appear showing children are  spending less time in nature and how that impacts their health and psyche. A recent three-year study by the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) measured “connection to nature” in 8–12 year olds, finding that only 21 percent of children had any connection to nature. Surprisingly, urban children had a slightly higher rate of nature connection than rural kids; girls (27%) versus boys (16%) were engaged in nature. In 2005, in his book, Last Child in the Woods (Algonquin Books), author Richard Louv coined the phrase “nature deficit disorder.”

On Friday, 25 October 2013, a new documentary film premiered in London, Project Wild Thing, a feature-length documentary by David Bond,  self-appointed “marketing director for nature.” In conjunction with the film’s release, the Wild Network was launched with nearly 400 organizations in the UK, promoting the idea of urging children to swap 30 minutes of screen time per day for 30 minutes of outdoor activities.

I went to the Project Wild Thing website and signed this kid up to commit swapping 30 minutes of screen time for wild time.  Now which one of my four or more electronic screen on at any time shall I give up for 30 minutes? See: www.projectwildthing.com.