Mountain Medicine

PHOTOGRAPHER:

For generations, wildcrafters have relied on the healing properties of our region’s diverse plant life. Today, Bent Creek Institute is using the tools of biotechnology to prove the value of these folk remedies and create a local hub for a new medicinal products industry.

Bent Creek Institute is studying the germination of black cohosh in hopes of developing it as a local crop.

A sample of black cohosh. Flowers, leaves, fruits, stalks, stems, and roots are pressed and placed on vouchers, which also list coordinates of that specific plant’s exact location.

Dr. James Lyles, an extraction chemist, filters an extract of a cherry species into a round-bottom flask.

With roots that look like the form of a doll, ginseng is one of WNC’s most exported and favored plants. It’s used to treat ailments ranging from dry cough to poor digestion and insomnia.

Herbalist Patricia Howell (right) teaches students ethical wildcrafting. Photograph courtesy of Patricia Howell

Jeffry Levi prepares a voucher while Dr. Joe-Ann McCoy isolates endophytes in the lab on the campus of the North Carolina Arboretum. Opposite, McCoy places specimens she collected into a plant press, the first step in voucher preparation

ISSUE DATE:

May 2011

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Mountain Medicine

Mountain Medicine