the aromaconnection blog

Illegal Trade affects Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in Nepal

A headline article in the Telegraphnepal discusses the status of several medicinal and aromatic plants in Nepal and concludes that they are endangered because of illegal trade supported by "rampant illiteracy" prevailing in the local villages.

The article focuses on the mushroom Cordyceps sinensis, Fritillaria cirrhosa, (both important in traditional Chinese Medicine); Larix himalaica, (used for construction) and mentions Seabuckthorn (used in cosmetics) as well as essential oils.

The author of the article, Khilendra Gurung, is a Nepalese botanist and researcher in the non-Timber forest products of Nepal, especially including aromatic plants, with a number of published papers on the essential oils of Nepal. Eight of his papers are posted online on Scribd, an article site. They include a 44 page inventory of non timber forest Products (NTFPs) in the Manaslu Conservation Area, an an analysis of wintergreen oils, two papers on Sea Buckthorn, an MS-GC of Rhododendron oil, a specification for Lindera neesiana, and an overview of the the essential oil bearing plants of Nepal.

Technorati Tags: Nepal,Aromatic Plants,Traditional Chinese Medicine,Sustainability

Earth Day 2008

"The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy and sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people. We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. the rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man, all belong to the same family. The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The waters murmur is the voice of my fathers' father. The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give to the rivers the kindness you would give any brother. If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So, if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers. Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, his is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself. One thing we know: our god is also your god. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator. Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted by talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone? Where will the Eagle be? Gone! And what is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival. When the last red man has vanished with his wilderness and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left? We love this earth as a newborn loves its mothers heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children and love it, as God loves us all. As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. One thing we know: there is only one God. No man, be he red man or white man, can be apart. We ARE all brothers after all."

      -Chief Seattle

The nature Conservancy Earth Day Ideas
Take action for climate crisis solutions at we
Recycle old computers, cell phones and other electronics
Earth Day official events and activities
Professional advice for business sustainability initiative
Earth Day Facts from Rochester, NY plus more links
Make every day Earth Day from Madison, Wisconsin
Adverse effects of palm oil by Dove from Greenpeace
We can do it! from Sierra Club
The Rainforest Initiative
Whitefeather Forest Initiative
The African Conservation Foundaton
Long list of intragovernmental, governmental and private (NGO) environmental orgs

That ought to keep us busy.

Happy Earth Day! from all of us at the aromaconnection group blog.  

Cropwatch Threatened Species Update Feb 2008

Cropwatch Threatened Aromatic Plants Used in the Aroma & Cosmetic Industries v 1.04 Feb 2008

The fourth update of Cropwatch's Threatened Species used in the Aroma Industry is out & can be found at http://www.cropwatch.org/v 1.04.pdf Its scope is now broadened to cover both the Aroma & Cosmetic Industries. For those of you who have not browsed the 81-page feature, it is divided into two parts. The first is a brief summary of topics relevant to aromatic plant conservation, and the second larger part is an alphabetical listing of the threatened aromatic species, covering geographic distribution,  IUCN status and any listings by other conservation organisations, with notes about the materials themselves. This new version also contains an updated section on unethical animal products used in cosmetics - such as oils derived from shark-livers, green turtles and emus. We have also slightly extended the biopiracy section to cover the activities of a US company which has copyrighted a Peruvian natural product used as a foodstuff and in indigenous medicine, as previously first reported in Herbalgram. 

Technorati Tags: Cropwatch,Threatened Aromatic Plants,biopiracy

Events of Interest

ALLIANCE OF INTERNATIONAL AROMATHERAPISTS:  After 5 years of developing educational newsletters and teleconferences as well as a staging a successful conference in 2005, the group formed as Aromatics in Action has officially launched under their new name, Alliance of International Aromatherapy. Now a fully-formed 501(c)3 nonprofit, they are holding their second major conference in Denver CO October 18-21, entitled Celebrating the Past - Creating the Future of Clinical Aromatherapy.  Presentation topics are diverse and contemporary and are sure to challenge and excite those who attend, covering safety issues, sustainability, clinical research, product quality and purity, global and planetary healing and a wide range of issues confronting aromatherapy. . . including, very smartly, a session on Growing a Successful Organization presented by Sonja Simpson who will help inform strategies as a potential plan of action for the continued success of AIA.  The efforts of this emerging organization are to be commended and the event appears a welcome turn towards a more progressive organized effort for aromatherapy in the U.S.  The only downside is that the event conflicts with other important gatherings in the broad range of interest to some who might otherwise attend.

WILD PLANT HARVEST: OPPORTUNITIES AND THREAT:  Aromatic plants, along with their medicinal, food and ornamental counterparts, are more and more frequently harvested from the wild, including public lands.  If harvested in a sustainable way, these nontimber forest products (NTFP's) can provide economic benefits to forests and the people who harvest them, largely in rural communities.  The 2007 Janet Meakin Poor Research Symposium scheduled for Friday, October 19, will feature a variety of topics to address ecological implications, sustainable harvesting, policy issues and international trade, and other management issues.  Keynote luminary, Dr. James A. Duke will present a slide lecture covering Medicinal Plants of the bible featuring slides by Peggy Ann K. Duke and a highlight will be the presentation of an international, multidisciplinary collaborative effort to value the pharmaceutical potential of plant diversity of Cuc Phuong National Park in N. Vietnam, presented by Dr. Djaja Doel Soejarto, professor of pharmacognosy and biology, University of Illinois at Chicago.  Other featured speakers include Colin Donohue, executive director of the National Network of Forest Practitioners (NNFP), Dr. Tamara Ticktin, associate professor of botany U. of Hawaii at Manoa with others.  Online registration deadline October 12.

If you have a major symposium or conference you wish us to announce in this periodic column, please send information and internet link to info@aromaconnection.org.

Vietnam promotes crassna plantation for essential oil

Vietnam is expanding the land dedicated to the production of  what they call "do tram" which is actually Aquilaria crassna, the tree that is commonly known as Aloeswood, eaglewood, or agarwood, according to a press release on mathaba.net. They currently have more than 10,000 ha (hectares, or 25,000 acres) of do tram trees, and plan to add 30,000 additional ha (75,000 acres). It has been estimated that growers can earn a profit of 100-300 million VND ($6,200 - $18,600 in US$) per ha of do tram trees a year. According to a paper on the Conservation and use of Aquilaria crassna in Vietnam: A Case Study from 2001, the production of do tram in plantations should reduce the pressure on the wild populations, and it can be grown in plantations and is also suitable for under-canopy planting in agroforestry systems. The species has been identified as threatened in Vietnam due to exploitation of wild stocks, and it is on the 2007 IUCN Red List.

This appears to be another example of expecting the income to come soon, while in fact it may be many years before the trees grow to maturity, and in the case of this species, become infected with a fungus that actually produces a resin from the heartwood that is the valuable material that is used in incense and can be distilled into the essential oil called oud or oudh. The Vietnamese plan to transfer the technology for oil production to the farmers by 2010, which seems a bit premature. The wood must be damaged in order to stimulate the growth of the fungus. One seller of the wood claims that the best product comes from trees that are hundreds of years old, but that may just be hype. There has been research done in Thailand to see if mechanical methods can be used to stimulate aloes wood formation, but the results of one study suggest it isn't too successful.

Trygve Harris points out in this post from 2004 that the trees have been planted all over southeast Asia for the last 20 years, with the anticipation that there would be a great income from it--but that in fact the oil produced from the non-infected trees is very poor quality and has little economic value. As she points out in this post about the wild production, the process of wood collection (the best product comes from dead infected trees that have been on the forest floor) and distillation is very complex and time consuming.

So, given the probable increasing rarity of the wild trees, and the difficulties of producing fine quality oil from the plantation grown plants, we can probably continue to expect fine quality agarwood and oud oil will remain rare and expensive. And there will be those who promote the low quality oil as better than it is.

Technorati Tags: aquilaria crassna , aloeswood , agarwood , oud , oudh , vietnam , essential oils , threatened species , do tram , perfumery

Bee Crisis Hearings yesterday

While the rest of us were watching or listening to Mr. Sampson tell all before the Senate Judiciary Committee, what may ultimately turn out to be a more important hearing was held by a House Agricultural subcommittee on Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the mysterious syndrome that is affecting the bee population.

As reported previously on this blog this could turn out to be a crisis leading to the end of civilization as we know it. As reported by CNN, the CCD crisis is apparently the culmination of significant decreases in bee populations over the last 20 years.

Over the past two decades, concern has risen around the world about the decline of pollinators of all descriptions. During this period in the United States, the honeybee, the world's premier pollinator, experienced a dramatic 40 percent decline, from nearly six million to less than two and a half million.

In 2005, for the first time in 85 years, the United States was forced to import honeybees in order to meet its pollination demands. [Dr. May R.] Berenbaum says that "if honeybees numbers continued to decline at the rates documented from 1989 to 1996, managed honeybees ... will cease to exist in the United States by 2035."

What isn't completely clear in the CNN article, but was covered at the hearings is that what we know about most are the effects on the domestic bee population. Because we humans haven't yet interacted with the wild bee populations, we don't have any idea whether CCD applies to wild bees, as well as the other various species that are also pollinators. Dr. Berenbaum's opening statement (linked above) goes into this in detail, and also supports increasing funding for the study of pollinators in general (both wild and domesticated).

Below the fold I've posted information about the Committee and the hearings, with links to the Opening Statements of the witnesses.

Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture

Dennis A. Cardoza, (D-CA) Chairman

Jurisdiction: fruits and vegetables; honey and bees; marketing and promotion orders; plant pesticides, quarantine, adulteration of seeds, and insect pests; and organic agriculture.

Majority	Minority
Dennis A. Cardoza, CA   Chairman Bob Etheridge, NC Lincoln Davis, TN Tim Mahoney, FL John Barrow, GA Kirsten E. Gillibrand, NY	Randy Neugebauer, TX   Ranking Minority Member John R. "Randy" Kuhl, Jr., NY Virginia Foxx, NC Kevin McCarthy, CA K. Michael Conaway, TX

Thursday, March 29th – 10:00 a.m.
1302 Longworth House Office Building
Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture — Public Hearing.
RE: Review of colony collapse disorder in honey bee colonies across the United States.

Witness List:

Panel I

• Associate Administrator Caird E. Rexroad, PhD, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, Washington, D.C.
• Dr. Diana Cox-Foster, PhD, Professor, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
• Dr. May R. Berenbaum, Professor and Head, Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois

Panel II

• Mr. Paul Wenger, First Vice President, California Farm Bureau Federation, Modesto, California
• Mr. David Ellingson, Commercial Bee Keeper, Ortonville, MN
• Mr. Gene Brandi, Legislative Chairman, California State Beekeepers Association, Los Banos, California
• Mr. Jim Doan, Commercial Bee Keeper, Hamlin, New York
• Mr. Richard Adee, Legislative Committee Chairman, American Honey Producers Association, Bruce, South Dakota

Endangered Rosewood

Herbalgram #73 contains a major article on sustainable harvesting of the endangered rosewood tree (Aniba rosaeodora)in Brazil.

For the past several years, a group of women in Brazil have struggled to promote and perform sustainable harvesting of endangered rosewood trees.¹ The group, called AVIVE for its acronym in Portuguese (meaning “Green Life Association of Amazonia” in English), was founded in 1999 and is composed of 43 women from the Silves district of the northern Amazonas state of Brazil. These women manufacture and sell soaps and products scented with rosewood oil and other natural aromas, while tending rosewood plantations for future sustainable use. Such practices aim to both reduce local poverty and improve the survival of a species sadly depleted over the years.

The article is long enough and detailed enough to present the entire picture with respect to rosewood, including an email from Chrissie Wildwood arguing "that the organization’s use of IBAMA-donated rosewood oil from heartwood inadvertently promotes the decimation of the species," and requesting that "I only wish they would drop the rosewood oil from their products until such time as the sustainable version of the oil becomes a reality." Chrissie Wildwood's article on her site.

This issue of Herbalgram, The Journal of the American Botanical Council, features Lavender on the cover of the printed edition and in an Herb Profile.