Making Medicine, Part 4 of 5: Equipment for Pressing and Filtering Tinctures

This is the fourth post in a series in which I am using the process of wild harvesting and making a fresh herb tincture of blue vervain (Verbena hastata) as an example to explain in detail the process of making herbal tinctures.

Part 1 of this series was posted on July 9th, Part 2 on July 15th, and Part 3 on August 22nd of 2012. After that I got busy and forgot about it, except periodically when someone reminded me about it. The truth is, every time it came up I thought about having to find and drag some old equipment out of storage and set up and take a bunch of photos and I put it off and forgot about it. Well, here is the next installment at last!

This was supposed to be the last post in this series, but it keeps growing! Every time I've worked on it I've realized that there is so much info to cover I keep extending it. However, I am confident that the fifth part will be the last.Taken as a whole, this series is one of the three most viewed offerings that I have posted so far. My apologies to those of you who have been patiently waiting for the conclusion.

In the first three posts we got up to the point where we have prepared the maceration of fresh blue vervain herb and it is being stored in the dark for a minimum of three months. As I stated previously, we don't want to press the maceration until we actually need it because the greatest amount of degradation of the active constituents occurs during the pressing process and afterwards. Once we know that we will be needing the tincture of a particular herb that we are macerating, starting about a week before we press it, it's a good idea to shake it vigorously once per day for about 30-60 seconds and then again immediately before we press it. This helps break up the plant material further now that it is much softer from having soaked for awhile and to get some more of the constituents out of the herb and into solution.

In order to prepare our tincture, the final step requires that the maceration be pressed and filtered. Let's begin by discussing pressing. The purpose of pressing the tincture is to squeeze as much liquid as possible out of the macerating plant material, which is technically called the marc. The more intensely we are able to press the plant material, not only do we get more tincture as an end result, we also get a somewhat stronger tincture because the fluid that is deep in the herb will tend to contain the highest concentration of its constituents. There are different kinds of pressing equipment that work to varying degrees. Unfortunately, as we might expect, the better the press the more expensive it is going to be. This means that we need to strike a balance between wanting to use the best equipment that will produce the largest volume and most potent tincture with the cost. In the long run, if we are serious about making tinctures it is preferable to use the best equipment that we can afford.

There are essentially four ways to press a tincture. Many books recommend the simplest method which is to pour the maceration through a few layers of cheese cloth and then wring out as much liquid as possible by hand. This process is so inefficient that, personally, I consider it a waste of time (and herbs). The simplest and most inexpensive method for pressing your maceration is to use a potato ricer. However, the standard cylinder type ricers are not recommended. They are not strong enough for pressing herbs and will break pretty quick. Although they are more expensive, the best ricer is what is usually marketed as a "professional" potato ricer. These have a triangular shape (see photo) and the part that takes most of the pressure is much stronger. Not only will they allow you to use more pressure, they will last much longer.

The standard cylinder ricer (left) is not strong enough for the kind of pressure necessary to press tinctures. The older professional ricer (middle) demonstrates what happens after many years of use. Note how the point with the wire is wrapped around it is bent out of shape. This is the point that takes the stress from all of the pressure. Wrapping wire around this point will increase the life of the ricer by helping to prevent the parts attached to the handle from slipping over the corners of the bar. The newer model with the more solid handle (right) is better because it isn't as hard on our hands when applying pressure. I used to have to use a towel wrapped around the handle of the old one. This isn't necessary with the design of the newer one.

The next best press is the screw press. There are many types available. They are usually used for pressing grapes to make wine or apples for cider. Wooden presses do not work for tinctures. Only stainless steel presses will do. Most of the better ones are made in Italy. However, there are some flaws in the design of many models that I will address. The more of these features that a press has, the better the quality.

Firstly, it is important that the design has an inner straining cylinder with holes that will contain the herb material while allowing the fluid to pass through, and a slightly larger solid outer cylinder with a hole and spout that allows the fluid to flow out. Ideally, the hole should be flush with the bottom of the container. Although most designs don't have it, it is best if the part of the press that the container sits on has some kind of brace that the spout fits into to hold it in position. Otherwise, when the pressure gets fairly high while we are pressing the tincture, the container and the position of the spout will spin. Another important point is that it is not recommended to just let the tincture flow out of the spout into a beaker or other container. It is best to attach a hose so that we can better direct the flow. Most presses don't come with a hose and it is necessary to purchase one. It's important that it fit snugly on the spout. If it isn't tight enough we can add a hose clamp. The material that the hose is made of is also important. We don't want to use PVC or other materials that will leach toxic chemicals into our tincture. A low-density polyethylene hose (LDPE) is probably the only material that is relatively non-toxic.

Another aspect of the design of a screw press that is important is how the metal disc that presses the herb material is attached to the screw on which it is mounted. Because of the tight fit between the disc and the inner cylinder, many companies do not weld the disc to the screw, but attach it loosely so that it can move. This makes it less likely to get jammed in the cylinder during the pressing process if it is slightly misaligned. The problem with this design is that, as the pressure on the herb increases, some of the tincture will seep up through the space between the disc and the screw and come in contact with the screw. This will allow some of the lubricant on the screw, which will be some kind of rancid oil that also contains fine metal dust from friction between the metal parts, to get into our tincture. This can even be a problem with presses for which the disc is attached to the screw because when the herb material is under a relatively high pressure the tincture will often flow out faster than it can seep through the holes in the inner cylinder. When this happens it will flow through the space between the disc and cylinder and over the top of the disc. Once more it could potentially come in contact with the screw unless the part of the disc that is mounted to the screw is relatively deep so that the level of tincture on top of the disc isn't higher than the point at which the disc is attached to the screw. Unfortunately, most screw presses have one or both of these flaws in their design. There is, however, a way around it and that is to insert a wooden disc between the metal disc and the herb. To do this it will be necessary to cut a round disc that fits fairly snugly into the inner cylinder of the press. It should be at least 2 cm (3/4 inch) thick and made from a relatively hard wood with a tight grain. I have found the best choices of wood to be (in descending order) sugar (hard) maple (Acer saccharum), white ash (Fraxinus americana) or American beech (Fagus grandifolia). There are even harder woods from tropical trees, but as these are usually harvested in an unsustainable manner that has a negative impact on tropical rain forests, I don't recommend them.

The purpose of the wooden disc is not only to prevent the metal disc (and the end of the screw if it is loosely attached) from coming in contact with our herb material, but also to help prevent the tincture from coming in contact with the screw by flowing up over the outer edge of the metal disc. The thickness of the wooden disk allows the tincture extra space where it can flow unimpeded through some additional holes in the inner cylinder. A 2 cm disc will usually be adequate, but up to twice that thickness might be a good idea for an extra margin of safety. For presses for which the metal disc is loosely attached to the screw, if we use a wooden disc between the metal disc and the herb material it is necessary to always position it so that the same side of the wooden disc is facing upwards. This is because inevitably the grease and metal dust from the screw will come in contact with the wooden disc and we don't want that side of the disc coming in contact with our herbs or tincture.

Another thing to look for in a screw press is the design of the frame that holds the screw. With most presses the part that holds the screw is attached to the base at two points. If we don't use the press too much this isn't an issue. However, if we use it a lot and really crank it to squeeze as much tincture out of our herbs as possible, I have found that this design isn't strong enough. Eventually it becomes loose at the points where it attaches to the base. The best designs are those where the part that holds the screw attaches to the base at three points. This is far more stable and more durable in the long run.

This older screw press is the standard design. You can see that the upper part of the frame that holds the screw is tilted from long-term use. The handles aren't long enough to easily apply sufficient torque for pressing tinctures. The metal disc isn't securely fastened to the screw so that it can rotate and tilt slightly, but it leaves enough space to allow tincture to flow up between the screw and the disc and come in contact with the grease on the screw. We eventually welded the disc to the screw with one of these, but due to the thinness of the attachment point, tincture was still able to flow around the edges and up over the top of disc and come in contact with the screw. Adding a wooden disc between the metal disc and the herbs was necessary to prevent this.

There are two more aspects of the design of a screw press that are important. The first relates to the handle that we use to turn the screw and put pressure on the herbs. Most of these presses have handles that are too short. The longer the handle the better. Not only is it easier to grip, but it allows us to put more torque on the screw and therefore more pressure on the herbs. The last issue is that it is best if the inner cylinder has a bottom. Some designs have inner cylinders without a full bottom.

In summary, I only recommend stainless steel screw presses with a two cylinder design and a spout on the outer cylinder. It is best to get one that has a capacity of 1-2 litres (approximately 1-2 quarts). In terms of the design issues I mentioned, the first (metal disc attached to screw with a deep attachment point) is the most important, however, it can be compensated for by using a wooden disc between the metal disc and the herbs. The second (three attachment points) is slightly less important, but it becomes more important the more we use the press. The third (long handles) is even less important, but this little detail can make a big difference in terms of ease and efficiency of use. The fourth (inner cylinder has a bottom) isn't that important, but it does make the press a bit easier to work with.

This is the best designed screw press that I have come across. It has three attachment points for greater stability, strength and durability; larger handles making it easier to turn the screw and apply more torque; a brace in the base that holds the spout in position; and a superior design for the disc attachment (see below). Although parts of the frame are made of aluminum, all of the parts that come in contact with the tincture and herbs are stainless steel. It even has holes in the feet so that it can be secured to a counter or piece of wood for greater stability. However, it is important to be able to tilt the press forward to drain the last bit of tincture out of the cylinder. It could be attached to a piece of wood as long as it is not too large, the front is straight, and doesn't extend too far beyond the feet so that it will still be easy to tilt the press forward. The only disadvantage of this design is that the inner cylinder doesn't have a bottom (see the photo of inner cylinders in the discussion of hydraulic presses below). However, this is only a minor issue; the least important of the various design issues that I have discussed.

Here is a closer look at the disc attachment. It allows the disc to spin so that it is less likely to get jammed in the inner cylinder. It also is fairly deep at the attachment point so that any tincture that flows over the surface of the disc will not come in contact with the grease on the screw. If we press the herbs relatively slowly towards the end, the amount of tincture that seeps up between the outer edge of the disc and the inner cylinder is minimal.

There is one modification to the screw press that I highly recommend. I have found that it is best if the herb material doesn't sit in a pool of tincture. This is because when we apply pressure, after a bit of time the herb material seems to settle a bit which causes a slight reduction in the pressure. When that happens, if the herbs are sitting in the tincture they will reabsorb some of it. Therefore it is best if the tincture is able to efficiently flow away from the herbs as soon as it is pressed out. This is one of the reasons why a press design with a spout is absolutely essential. However, because the bottom of the cylinder is horizontal, the last bit of tincture doesn't flow out very fast. To avoid the herb material sitting in a pool of tincture, what I have found works best is to use a wooden disc as described above. This disc is placed inside the outer cylinder before we insert the inner cylinder so that the inner cylinder is resting on the disc and elevated above the bottom of the outer cylinder.

The third major type of press is the hydraulic press. The best hydraulic presses are the electric ones because they can apply the most pressure. However, these tend to have three limitations. Firstly, they tend to be designed for a larger capacity and are not suitable for small quantities of tincture. Secondly, many designs don't have an outer cylinder. This might be OK for pressing grapes, but for many herbs the tincture will spray out in a way that needs to be contained by an outer cylinder. The third limitation of electric hydraulic presses is that they are extremely expensive. I would only recommend an electric hydraulic press for the production of tinctures on a very large scale requiring the pressing of 4-5 litres or more at a time. Even for an herbalist who has a busy practice and produces all of their own tinctures this is not likely to be economical.

As an alternative, there are a number of designs out there that use a manual hydraulic mechanism. Basically they attach an hydraulic bottle jack (which is typically used as a car jack) to some kind of frame. I have seen a number of designs and most of them are examples of enthusiasm more than efficiency. The typical design is to use an hydraulic bottle jack to squeeze herbs between two stainless steel bowls and then pour off the tincture by tilting the "press" (no holes, no spout). I don't recommend any of these. There is only one that I have come across that I recommend and it is the press that I use myself. Although it's not perfect, it is the best press I've ever worked with. I am always experimenting with different kinds of equipment for making tinctures. I have to say that of all of the equipment that I have acquired, the two most important things in terms of efficiency are my mezzaluna (see Part 2) and my hydraulic press.

This is the best manual hydraulic press that I have come across so far. It works very well but has two design flaws. Firstly, it is too top heavy and awkward to work with. I have a lot of experience working with presses and I don't find it too difficult to use, but most of my students have difficulty working with it on their own and need to work in pairs when using this press. The second design flaw is that there are too few holes in the inner cylinder (see below).

 Note the significant difference in the number of holes between the inner cylinder of the hydraulic press (left) and the screw press (right). Even if it had additional columns of holes in between the existing columns with the spacing of the holes half way between the existing holes it would be a significant improvement. I will probably drill them myself at some point. The cylinder on the left includes a cotton filter which is flared at the top so that it easily folds over the top edge when the maceration is being poured in. The wooden disc (centre) is positioned between the outer and inner cylinders so that the inner cylinder sits on top of it. The filter and the disc are both very stained from the tannins in herbs. Note that the inner cylinder of the screw press doesn't have a complete bottom. It is the only design flaw with that particular press, and a minor one at that.

There is one more trick that will significantly improve the efficiency of pressing and filtering. It is best to use a filter inside the press. This allows the maceration to be filtered under pressure. It eliminates the need for a separate filtration step and significantly decreases the amount of time of the whole pressing and filtering process. This is very important, not only in terms of saving time, but because the less time that elapses between when we open the jars containing our maceration and when we seal the finished tincture in a bottle, the less degradation of the active constituents that will occur. That means a better quality tincture. It is best to custom make filters that fit inside the inner cylinder. They should be a little taller than the cylinder and flared at the top so that they can easily be folded over the top of the cylinder when we pour our maceration into the press. Otherwise the filter will collapse as we pour the maceration into it. The filter should be made out of unbleached cotton or some other natural fibre, preferably certified organic. Use a coarse weave because it will filter easier and we actually want the thicker sediments and latexes of the herbs in our tincture. Before making the filters, it is important to wash the fabric several times with natural detergent because fabrics these days tend to be coated in all kinds of toxic chemicals (see Toxic Threads for more information). It is best to add some vinegar to the water as well.

If we don't use a filter in the press, it is necessary to filter the tincture after pressing it. In this case we allow gravity to filter it through a cotton filter placed inside a funnel over a beaker or other receiving container. We position the hose to allow the tincture to flow into the filter from the press. It is necessary to press the maceration more slowly when using this method so we don't overflow the filter.

There are other designs of equipment that can be used for pressing tinctures. Although I would love to, unfortunately it isn't possible for me to purchase and try them all. Most of the presses I have seen online aren't very good, but I suspect there are a few out there that are worth checking out.

This ends my discussion of pressing and filtering equipment. In Part 5, the final post in this series, I will cover the actual process of pressing and filtering our maceration.

Happy Solstice ... And Other Stories!

Last Saturday was the winter solstice. Once more we acknowledged this sacred time in ceremony. For those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere, it is not only the shortest day of the year, the end of fall and the beginning of winter, it is also the end of the natural year and the beginning of the new. It is such an incredible privilege to have been able to live in this awesome, mysterious world through another fall and another year, and to be able to greet the arrival of winter and the new year.

Normally I would post this on the day of the solstice, but this year the wisdom and mystery of this time brought a different teaching in the region where I live and I wasn't able to get online until yesterday. During the last few minutes of our ceremony it started to rain ... and it didn't stop until early Monday morning. Aside from the fact that rain is somewhat unusual in these parts at this time of year (although the winters have been getting warmer and rain more common in the last couple of decades), what was also different was that the temperature stayed steady around the freezing point. For two days the ice accumulated. Starting on Saturday evening, whenever I went outside I would hear a sharp crack and a huge branch would come crashing down about every 30-60 seconds . Every 5-10 minutes a tree would come down as well. I have never seen anything like it. By the end of it even tiny little blades of grass had 2-3 cm (about an inch) of ice on them!

The view from our front door Friday afternoon.

Although they are calling it an "ice storm", it wasn't very stormy. Just very calm with a gentle, steady rain. But by the end of it the devastation was incredible. It is with great sadness that I witness the harm that has come to the tree people where I live and in the surrounding region. The repercussions for our society in the area affected have also been profound. Hundreds of thousands of people were without power and, as I write this a week later, tens of thousands still are - including us!

The area a bit to the left of the previous photo.

I live in a rural area. Our driveway winds 300 metres through woods before you get to our house. Our power went out Saturday night when one of the falling trees snapped the power line. The power went out on the street where I live a short time later. The power on our street wasn't restored until Friday afternoon, but we won't get ours until at least the end of next week because that is how long it is going to take to get crews in here to trim the trees and fix the power lines. We had no electricity, heat or water (as we have a well) initially, but luckily my son Sean, who is an electrician apprentice, was able to find us a generator online (they are completely sold out or rented out within a couple of hours drive of the areas affected). The generator that we were able to get isn't a very powerful one. All we have hooked up is the furnace and the lights and plugs in two rooms. Just in time too! By the time he got it hooked up on Wednesday morning it was a couple of degrees above freezing in our house. The whole situation was exacerbated by the fact that on Tuesday we went into a deep freeze while about half of the people affected still didn't have their electricity restored.

The view behind our home. As a reference point, the large white pines in the background are about 20-25 metres tall.

In spite of the destruction, when we walked through the fields after the storm everything looked so magical coated in thick ice and glistening in the sunshine. I couldn't take any photos at that time because the batteries were dead in both of my cameras. I wasn't able to charge them until Thursday. The photos I have provided were taken Friday afternoon. By that time some of the ice had melted and everything was covered by a fresh blanket of snow that fell on Thursday.

As devastating as these natural disasters are, they are part of the natural cycle of things. They provide a means of transformation and renewal. Traditional peoples understood this. However, in our modern society we are over-populated and we attempt to build permanent homes and infrastructure. We have created a situation where we are usually at odds with natural rhythms and cycles in order to maintain our lifestyle. We also tend to think too short-term and don't have very much resilience or adaptability built into how we do things. We tend to put most of our eggs in one basket (like petroleum).

A Canada goldenrod stalk (Solidago canadensis) reinforcing a significantly larger column of ice.

Living through this has provided me with some very powerful teachings. We currently live in a home that I rent in a rural area just north of Toronto. It's a moderate size home by today's standards (probably about 3,000 square feet). My kids each have a bedroom plus I run classes and clinics out of our home. One room is a designated classroom and I also have a consultation room and my working office. Nevertheless, I feel the weight of having to have so much space and stuff. A short distance south of me there are endless new subdivisions where even the townhouses are 1,500-2,000 square feet. Semis are 2,000-2,500 and detached homes can be anywhere from 3-6,000 square feet. Then there are the luxury "communities" which are completely over the top. There is even one subdivision a short distance west of me where the "homes" are 8-15,000 square feet. Personally I think that this is insane! I grew up in an older suburb of Toronto where most families did just fine in 1,000-1,500 square feet bungalows which only took up a small portion of their lots. There was lots of green space, kids played outside most of the time, and everyone knew their neighbors. This storm was rough for me, but I can't imagine what it would be like in one of those monster homes without electricity. I hope that they learned something from this too!

I look forward to a time in the next year or two when I will move further out into the country to a smaller place that is more manageable along with some close friends. We are part of an intentional community that has been developing over the last few years. We still haven't found the right land, but hope to soon. Although I'm going to be roughing it for a bit longer, I'm extremely grateful for the lessons that I've learned from my current circumstances about important ways to build more flexibility and resilience into my home, and for the importance of community. I would not have been able to manage without the help of family and friends.

As always, as I walk the land I am always observing what's going on. I'm paying careful attention to how the land responds to these conditions. I've learned a lot about the ability of the many species of trees that live on the land where I live to be able to withstand an ice storm. Some species were only affected in a minor way. Others were devastated. Since we are expected to experience more of these kinds of weather events in the coming years, this is important information in terms of what trees we decide to plant in the future. I haven't had the opportunity to explore every corner of the land due to falling branches and ice, but this is what I've found so far starting with the species that are the most resilient and working down to those that were the most damaged: Norway spruce (Picea abies) > white spruce (Picea glauca) > eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) > balsam fir (Abies balsamea) > tamarack (Larix laricina) > red pine (Pinus resinosa) > white pine (Pinus strobus) > black walnut (Juglans nigra) > sugar maple (Acer saccharum) > rock elm (Ulmus thomasii) > white cedar (Thuja occidentalis) > ironwood (Ostrya virginiana) > pin cherry (Prunus pensylvanica) > chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) > high-bush cranberry (Viburnum opulus) > common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) > red oak (Quercus rubra) > white ash (Fraxinus americana) > red maple (Acer rubrum) > hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) > American beech (Fagus grandifolia) > American elm (Ulmus americana) > Eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides) > silver maple (Acer saccharinum) > white willow (Salix alba) > paper birch (Betula papyrifera) > trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) > blue beech (Carpinus caroliniana) > yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) > American basswood (Tilia americana) > black cherry (Prunus serotina) > peachleaf willow (Salix amygdaloides) > Manitoba maple (Acer negundo) > Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila). Of course, this is only the result from one storm with no wind, and many of the trees around me are relatively young to medium age. Other storms might produce slightly different results, but this is still very useful information.

Here we have motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) similarly encased in ice.

There is also the much bigger picture. Due to global warming, the area where I live is expected to get more ice storms, more violent thunder storms, more tornadoes, and more extremes of weather in other ways such as years of drought and years of excessive rain (last year Toronto experienced its heaviest rainfall and worst flooding on record). This is going to be the new norm, not just here, but pretty much everywhere. As much as we may empathize with other people when we hear about various natural disasters in the news, it's not the same as when it happens in our own backyard. By now most of us have experienced natural disasters first hand, or at least have family or friends that have. It is my hope that this and other similar occurrences will help us all to wake up and realize that the way we are living is unsustainable. If we don't act on a major scale very soon, the world that our children and grandchildren inherit is going to be a very different and challenging place.

Getting back to the solstice, I would like to send out prayers of healing at this sacred time to all of the people of the world. I hope that this will be a year of greater healing and wisdom; that we will begin to open our hearts more fully and tread the long and difficult path necessary to help create a more balanced, harmonious and sustainable future.

How Clean Is Too Clean?

There is no doubt that good hygiene is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Improvements in hygiene, access to clean drinking water and regular access to a variety of foods were the most important elements that improved our health and longevity in the last 100+ years. Although these were not always concerns in the past, they became issues as a growing proportion of the human population began to live in an urban environment. These factors did more to improve our health than all of the "advances" of modern medicine combined. The only medical advancement that comes even close is the development of antibiotics. Although antibiotics continue to be mostly over-used and misused, their contribution to reducing the number of people who die from acute infections can not be denied.

Today it's hard to believe that until fairly recently doctors who advocated good hygienic practices were once ridiculed and marginalized by the mainstream of their profession. Times have certainly changed, but consistent with human nature we have now swung too far to the other end of the spectrum. In recent decades we have developed a neurotic obsession with cleanliness and fear of microbes that is detrimental to our health and the environment upon which depend. These days it is very common for people to poison their bodies, homes and workplace with toxic cleaning products, antibacterial personal hygiene products, and others. I am even finding it increasingly difficult to buy clothing that isn't "antibacterial" or "antiodour". These products are coated with antimicrobial substances such as triclosan , or silver or copper nanoparticles. These substances are absorbed through our skin and wash out into the environment. In both cases they are associated with some pretty detrimental effects (for example, see http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-chemical-marketplace-triclosan).

Nanoparticles are the rage these days. They are showing up in many products that we use and consume. They are virtually unregulated and we know almost nothing about what they do in our bodies and the environment. Among the few things we do know is that they can be absorbed through our skin, they accumulate up the food chain, and we are beginning to see deleterious effects of these substances on living organisms (for example: see http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nanotechnology-silver-nanoparticles-fish-malformation).

Nanotechnologies are just one of the latest in a long history of our failures to adhere to the precautionary principle. Industry is creating new technologies faster than we can keep up with and there is insufficient regulation to manage their risks. In the corporate run consumer society that we have created, these things will be released into our environment in millions of ways long before we have even a fraction of understanding about what they do to living organisms in the short-term, never mind the next seven generations. As is typical, some people are making a lot of money while in the long run society and the biosphere pay the price!

Elecampane root (Inula helenium) primarily helps our immune system to respond to pathogens rather than directly attacking them.

It also contains prebiotic constituents that promote the growth of friendly bacteria in our respiratory and digestive tracts.

One of the problems with the mainstream medical reductionistic interpretation of the discovery of disease causing microorganisms was that microbes became the bad guys. In reality, infectious microorganisms are just the tip of the iceberg and focusing medical interventions at that level is a completely superficial approach. Life is much more complex than that. From an holistic perspective we need to get to the root of why someone is getting sick in the first place. This has more to do with what we eat, and how and where we live than what pathogens we are exposed to. On a daily basis we are exposed to millions of potentially pathogenic microorganisms without necessarily getting sick. In addition, there are trillions of microbes that live on our skin and the surfaces of the mucus membranes that form the lining of our internal organs. The number of microbes that live on and in us actually outnumbers our body cells by an approximate ration of 10:1! This is possible because these organisms are much smaller than our body cells. In many ways our body is more like an ecosystem than a distinct entity. Recently microbiologists have begun to refer to the organisms that live within and on us as the human microbiome. It is an ecological niche that is part of us and we are part of it. These populations of microorganisms that live with us form an interface between our bodies and the rest of the world. They work together with our immune system and the epithelial cells of our skin and mucus membranes to help create an environment that is mutually beneficial for both us and them (for example see: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130328125228.htm and http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130826180513.htm).

In this world everything is interconnected and has its place in the larger whole. By using microbes as a scapegoat and going at them with guns blazing we have been able to conveniently avoid the real issues which are what we eat and how we live, and our antimicrobial obsession is actually contributing to the underlying problem. Not only are we poisoning ourselves and the environment with all of our antimicrobial products, but these products indiscriminately kill other microorganisms as well. Most of the microbes that we come in contact with on a daily basis are either benign or beneficial in most circumstances. However, the antimicrobial products that we use don't discriminate between beneficial microbes and those that are potentially harmful. When we kill off a lot of the symbiotic microorganisms that live on and in us with things like antibiotics and hand sanitizers we alter the human microbiome in ways that creates an environment less able to support friendly microorganisms and the health of the cells of our body surfaces. The friendly microbes actually help to keep the potentially pathogenic microbes in check, both directly by competing with them, and indirectly by creating an environment that is less conducive to their growth and cooperating with our immune system to aid its functioning as well. When we disturb the balance of the microbiome, we inadvertently create an environment that is more supportive to the proliferation of the unfriendly microorganisms and less supportive of the health of the friendly microbes and our body tissues.

In the last couple of decades scientists have finally begun to study the human microbiome and a growing body of very interesting research is accumulating. What they are finding is that there is a strong relationship between the population of microbes that live on and inside us and our general health. They are also finding that, just as our muscles need a certain amount of stress (exercise) in order to improve their strength and endurance, so does our immune system. Like all organs in our body, our immune system needs a healthy amount of stress in order to develop and function properly. To much stress will overwhelm it, but too little stress will also weaken it or lead to other kinds of dysfunction. When we look at life, the ecosystem and our body from an holistic perspective, this makes perfect sense and it's been a fundamental principle of the natural healing paradigm for millennia. But when scientists approach the world from a linear reductionistic perspective it is difficult to see the multifaceted connections between things. These can only be seen if we take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Immune tonics such as the fruiting body of hemlock varnish shelf (Ganoderma tsugae) help to normalize our immune function
and reduce excessive inflammatory responses such as those associated with autoimmune conditions.

More recently, some medical researchers are finally coming around and realizing that it's time to try and figure out what most of the microbes out there (other than the ones that are causing diseases) are doing. Not surprisingly, they are finding that a healthy microbiome is essential to our health in many ways. This is extremely important if we are looking at health from an holistic perspective. I have discussed this from a number of angles in previous posts and no doubt will again in the future. However, another important trend that is emerging has to do with our relationship to pathogenic organisms. There is a growing body of research that indicates that by reducing our normal exposure to pathogenic microorganisms as a result of increased levels of sanitation, it is basically screwing up our immune system and contributing to the development of many chronic inflammatory illnesses such as allergies, asthma and other autoimmune conditions. What this research indicates is that the greater the level of sanitation in a country, the higher the incidence of these kinds of conditions. This has led to the development of the "hygiene hypothesis", which basically states that exposure to a broad range of pathogens is necessary for the normal development of our immune system. Without this exposure our immune system develops with less of an emphasis on responses that are intended to fight infection and a greater tendency towards immune responses that promote inflammation (for a detailed explanation of the hygiene hypothesis see: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-it-be-bad-to-be-too-clean-the-h-11-04-06). One unfortunate consequence of this is that it seems to be one of the factors that have resulted in women more commonly suffering from autoimmune conditions than men. Some researchers believe that this is because in our society we encourage young girls to be cleaner than young boys (see: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110126144528.htm).

Although there is still some resistance among many medical researchers to accept these findings, a relationship between hygiene, sanitation and chronic inflammatory conditions is being demonstrated for a growing number of conditions. Some of the more recent associations include type 1 diabetes (see: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130318203334.htm) and Alzheimer's disease (see: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130904105347.htm).

The moral of this story is that, although good hygiene is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, too much emphasis on hygiene can be just as detrimental as not enough. To address hygiene in the context of a healthy lifestyle there are a number of principles that need to be kept in mind:

It is best to avoid the use of toxic cleaning products, cosmetics

and other personal hygiene products.

It is best to only use natural household cleaning and laundry products, cosmetics, soaps, etc., and avoid the use of chlorine based products and synthetic disinfectants. Many of these products are easily absorbed through our skin and some are even toxic if inhaled. It is also best to avoid chlorinated or brominated water: we don't want to drink it, swim in it, or bathe in it. This means that if our household water source is chemically treated municipal water, we should invest in a decent water filter for drinking and a shower filter for showering and bathing. All of these products are toxic to the environment, our body, and they disturb the balance of microorganisms that live in and on us.

Garden thyme (Thymus vulgaris) essential oil is an excellent antimicrobial that is a common ingredient in
natural hand sanitizers. It can be added to home made natural cleaning products as a disinfectant.

"Antimicrobial" and "low odour" clothing and personal hygiene products
are best avoided even if they are "natural".

"Antimicrobial" or "low odour" clothing are best avoided for reasons that I stated above. Hand sanitizers are unnecessary and often contain toxic ingredients such as triclosan. Even natural hand sanitizers such as those with antimicrobial essential oils are not recommended. Research has indicated that these products are usually no more effective than plain soap and water, but they are potentially a source of toxicity and both synthetic and natural hand sanitizers disturb the balance of bacteria on our skin. That being said, periodic use of natural hand sanitizers in circumstances where soap and water are not immediately accessible is OK. We also need to be a bit more cautious when we are travelling in distant countries because the strains of microbes will be different there, especially in warmer climates where there tends to be a broader range of parasites. Once more, soap and water are still the best option, but it doesn't hurt to bring a natural hand sanitizer for situations where it isn't possible to wash our hands.

It is best if we practice moderation with regard to personal hygiene.

A good natural soap and water is the best way to clean our skin. Antibacterial soaps are not recommended. Soap is itself naturally antibacterial. However, too much soap and water is also not good because it will also disturb the natural balance of our skin microbiome and it strips the natural oils from our skin making it drier and more prone to injury and infection. The truth is, most parts of our body do not require soap unless they come in contact with something that is oily or associated with a high risk of infection (like dead animal tissue). Over most of our body surface the primary thing we need to remove is sweat. Most of our sweat is water-soluble, so rinsing with water is sufficient and soap unnecessary. Although water alone will not remove excess sebum (the oily secretion that lubricates our skin), if some parts of our skin tend to be on the oily side, toweling dry is sufficient to remove the excess oil. Using soap in these areas will temporarily remove too much sebum and in the long run stimulate our sebaceous glands to secrete more sebum thereby making our skin even more oily.

There are a few exceptions. Water alone is insufficient to wash our hair. It is best to use a gentle, natural shampoo, but don't use so much that your hair is "squeaky clean". It is best to leave some of the natural oils in our hair. It is also preferable for most people not to shampoo their hair more than every other day. In the long run, the more we wash it, the oilier it gets.

Another exception is our armpits which contain lots of apocrine glands that secrete a different kind of sweat that includes fatty components. It is the metabolism of these substances by bacteria that produce odour as our sweat is pretty much scentless. Because of the fat content of these secretions, water alone is insufficient to clean these areas.

Our anal region is another area that requires washing with soap due to the presence of fecal matter. However, our genital region is very sensitive and it is best not to use soap in this region. This tends to be an area where people are more obsessive and tend to overdo it. The disturbances of the skin microbiome in this area of our body that result from using soap and water and other personal hygiene products (when used) is one of the contributing factors to the development of fungal or bacterial infections of the vagina. Rinsing with water and toweling dry is good enough in this region of our body.

Our hands and feet are the last two areas that require soap and water. This means that when we shower, aside from shampooing our hair, the only areas of our body that require soap are our armpits, anal region, hands and feet. Rinsing with water and toweling dry are good enough and preferable for the rest of our body. It is also important that we make sure that the skin in areas of our body with folds and creases is properly rinsed and toweled dry because these areas tend to be moist and can be breeding areas for unfriendly microorganisms if sweat, sebum and dead cells are allowed to build up.

Good clean water is the best thing for washing most of our body most of the time.

The last thing that needs to be said here is that showering or bathing in chlorinated water is bad news. Not only does it disturb the balance of our skin microbiome, we can absorb chlorine into our body through our skin and by inhaling it. Once it is in our body it reacts with organic substances forming organochlorides which are very toxic. This means that it is best to only shower or fill our bathtub through a good shower filter that removes chlorine. Also, bathing in general isn't recommended even if we eliminate the chlorine from the water. It just isn't a good idea to sit and soak in dirty, soapy water, even if we shower afterwards to rinse off. Bathing is particularly problematic for women because the chlorine and soap in bath water will enter their vagina and disturb the balance of vaginal microbes making them more susceptible to vaginal yeast or bacterial infections. That being said, relaxing in a warm bathtub with some essential oils is a great way to reduce stress as long as there is no chlorine or soap in the water.

Be clear and calm, not paranoid.

A friend of mine once told me that she was becoming so concerned about pathogens in our environment that she was afraid to touch door handles and shopping carts. I told her that next time she felt that way she should lick the door handle and feel good about it and she'd probably be less likely to get sick! Although I was being somewhat facetious, I was also partly serious. I walk into a local supermarket these days and there is a hand sanitizer station at the entrance so that people can disinfect the handle of their shopping cart. Then there's bottles of hand sanitizer at the checkout so that people can disinfect their hands after handling money. I see the same kind of thing in a lot of public places. Of course, we are now expected to goop on the hand sanitizer before entering a hospital as well. The irony is that the microbes that we are bringing into the hospital are usually a lot less of a concern than the ones that are already there. Hospitals are breeding grounds for super microbes that are resistant to most of what we can throw at them. This is mostly because of the over use and misuse of antibiotics and chemical disinfectants. Hand sanitizers are one of the things that are contributing to the development of these organisms.

A few years ago I heard an interesting radio interview with a respected microbiologist. He was discussing the issue of how our society has gone overboard in our war on microbes and mentioned hand sanitizers as an example. He said that people would be better off washing their hands with yogurt than hand sanitizers because the bacterial culture in yogurt will compete with any potentially pathogenic organisms on our skin and help to maintain a healthy microbiome instead of disturb it with toxic antiseptics. He was making a point, of course. He wasn't advocating that we wash our hands with yogurt.

The bottom line is that exposure to microbes is a normal part of life. Most of them are benign, many of them are beneficial, and some of them are pathogenic. Under most circumstances our microbial community and our immune system will keep them in check. Even if we do get sick occasionally, periodic infections, as long as they are not really serious ones, are good stress for our immune system just like regular exercise is good stress for our muscles, cardiovascular and respiratory systems. The best thing we can do is be healthy in body, mind and spirit. Eating well, regular exercise, a moderate level of hygiene, reducing stress and exposure to toxicity, and a good attitude in life are our best protection. It will help to ensure that our immune system and our body as a whole are strong and healthy. If we aren't healthy, no amount of sanitation, hygiene or toxic products are going to keep us from getting sick.

Valerian root (Valeriana officinalis) is a great friend when fear and anxiety get the better of us!

Unfortunately, it's easy to succumb to fear. On one side we have reductionistic medical practitioners stuck in their narrow linear world view. On the other side we have more fear being propagated by various industries trying to sell us a multitude of antimicrobial products. And then we have the media sensationalizing everything in order to get our attention. To a large extent they are more of the problem than the microbes that they want us to fear by distracting us from the real causes of illness (what we eat and how we live), encouraging us to poison ourselves and our environment with all kinds of toxic products, and by promoting fear, for fear has one of the most powerful negative affects on our health and well-being, and more specifically our immune function.

In my life I eat pretty well most of the time, exercise fairly regularly, avoid toxic products as much as possible, don't let stress get the upper hand most of the time, and follow my heart and live my life to the fullest. I follow the guidelines that I outlined above when it comes to hygiene. I also don't worry about microbes. I take necessary precautions when it is required, but when I consider it to be required is far less often than most other people. For instance, I have no problem hugging or kissing people who are sick. I don't freak out if someone coughs or sneezes near me. I'm also not the least bit concerned about touching money or surfaces in public places unless there could be some kind of chemical contamination (even here I don't get stressed about it, I just avoid it as best I can). I wash my hands with soap if I'm digging in the soil, after I have a bowel movement (soap isn't necessary when we urinate because urine is water soluble), after I pet one of my dogs (for an interesting related article on dogs see: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131216155042.htm) or any other animal if they are stinky (but not if they're relatively clean), if I possibly come in contact with animal feces or rotting animal tissue (which can happen when one of my dogs rolls on something nasty), if I touch raw meat, or if I get something oily on my hands. I rarely wash my hands before I eat because mostly I'm just touching things in my local environment where all of the microbes are already a part of me. However, I'm a bit more cautious when I'm travelling and potentially coming in contact with strains of microbes that I'm not used to.

Although some people might be shocked at my relaxed attitude to pathogens, I am strong and healthy and almost never get sick. That being said, I am not advocating that everyone do what I do. I know what my body can handle and what my limitations are. This is not something new for me. I have lived this way for 35 years. Each of us has to make our choices in accordance with our current level of health and circumstances. We can wash our hands as much as we want (with natural soap and water) and don't have to kiss people with the flu. What we do need to do is stop poisoning ourselves, live well and do our best to not live a life governed by fear.

More on Chaga!

There's been a lot of interest in the post I did in September on Chaga and the Wild Harvesting Dilemma. As a supplement to that, I've just put up a video on YouTube taken from an Herbal Field Studies field workshop last August in which I discussed chaga.  Enjoy!

That being said, in the couple of months since I wrote that post I have seen a disturbing acceleration in the number of products containing chaga on the market. It's being added to vitamin supplements and various kinds of powdered supplements, and most disconcerting of all in food products as well! Sadly, this is the result of a lot of companies trying to cash in on the chaga craze at the expense of chaga, the environment and the people who really need it. It's also just a marketing gimmick! In most cases these products don't contain enough of the fungus to have any health benefits. However, they may have enough in them so that if these products are consumed on a regular basis for a long time our body could get used to the chaga and it won't work as well if some day we really need to use it. This is why I never recommend the use of vitamins, powders or food products that contain medicinal herbs! This is not an appropriate use of these medicines. They are not meant to be consumed in minute quantities over very long periods of time.

Aside from the fact that minute amounts of chaga (or any herb for that matter) in a multivitamin or chocolate bar are not going to do much for anyone, the bigger issue here is that chaga is difficult to cultivate and the cultivated fungus is significantly inferior to the wild harvested source. As a result, it's wild harvested chaga that these companies are using. For reasons that I explained in my previous post on this topic, wild harvesting chaga on a commercial scale simply is not sustainable. Even if the level of consumption stays at the current rate (and it is actually increasing rapidly), within a few years this fungus is going to be severely depleted in the wild like other herbs that have been over-harvested such as ginseng (Panax spp.) and goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis).

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) is now rare, endangered or extinct in most of its former range due to over-harvesting.

Even if it was useful to consume chaga in this way, it should not be used on a commercial scale until good quality cultivated sources are readily available. That also goes for other wild harvested herbs and foods unless they are species that are very aggressive or "invasive" by nature and the scale of harvesting isn't too large.

I strongly encourage anyone who uses herbal products to only use those that are manufactured from certified organically grown sources. In the case of chaga, if you love and respect herbs and Nature, you might even want to consider complaining to stores or companies that sell or manufacture these products. If we can raise the level of awareness of these issues maybe things will change before chaga goes the way of other herbs that have been over-harvested.

So, you might ask why I'm putting out information on the medicinal uses of chaga at all? Firstly, although the current popularity of this fungus is not a good thing, I'm hoping that some good can come of it by using it as a vehicle to help raise awareness of these issues. Secondly, I feel that it is a very important part of our healing process that we engage with Nature as much as possible and learning about herbs and making our own medicines is a great way to do that for those who are so inclined, as long as it is done in a respectful manner. Teaching people how to do this is one of the ways that I can help people to connect with Nature and the medicines that they use, as well as how to do it in a way that honours our relationship with the world we live in. Finally, chaga is an awesome medicine (when used correctly)! Nevertheless, due to the significant reduction in wild populations, I have significantly reduced my use of it to those conditions where it really excels, which are conditions of the bone marrow and autoimmune conditions that don't respond as well as I would like to some of the other herbs that I typically use for these types of conditions. I also only use it at a proportion of no more than 20% of a formula. For all of its other uses chaga works no better than many of the other herbs that I use. I also encourage everyone else to use it similarly to reduce our impact on wild populations.

Unfortunately, chaga is primarily being promoted for use as a general tonic, which leads to the greatest amount of consumption. Although it can be very effective as a tonic when used correctly, it should not be used indiscriminately. However, under the current circumstances I no longer recommend its use in this way. There are many medicinal mushrooms and other herbal immune tonics and adaptogens that are available commercially from organically grown sources that work just as well. There's no need for chaga to be used as a general tonic.

Turkey tail (Trametes versicolor) is an excellent tonic mushroom that is readily available from organically grown sources.

If you do wish to harvest some chaga for personal use, it should only be harvested in areas where there is no evidence that anyone else has been harvesting it. There should also be a fair bit of it around so that you only have to harvest from a small percentage of the fungi. Chaga often grows high up where we can't reach it, so look up. If you only find one that is growing at a level that you can reach but there are at least a few in the area growing up high, it's fine to harvest it. Look for fungi that grow out past the surface of the tree and only harvest up to 50% of any given fungus. Make sure that you leave some of the outer black crusty portion and don't cut it deeper than the surface of the tree.

Although chaga is traditionally used as a tea, it is best to make a tincture of it. The amount of fungus required per unit dose is much smaller for tinctures because they extract the chemical constituents and are assimilated more efficiently. There are some people who claim that medicinal mushrooms can not be extracted as tinctures. This isn't true! Most of the people who make these claims are affiliated with companies that use expensive high-tech extraction methods that you can't use at home. Some have been propagating this misinformation to encourage people to use their products. The key to making a tincture is that the fungus must be chopped very fine, basically to the level of a very course coffee grind. It is best to use a menstruum (extraction medium) that is 60% water, 30% alcohol and 10% glycerin. This menstruum will efficiently extract polysaccharides and other constituents that don't like alcohol, but still extract those that like alcohol efficiently as well. Finally, the herbs should be macerated (soaked in the menstruum) at least three months before you press and filter it to make your tincture.

It wasn't my intention to keep harping on this topic. There was a lot of action on my previous post on chaga, so I decided that it would be nice to put up a video on it. The video was recorded about a month before I did that post. It was coming across that butchered chaga during that field workshop that inspired me to finally write that post, although I had been thinking about it for some time. After seeing a growing number of ridiculous products containing chaga appear on the market over the last couple of months and then watching that video a few times while editing it, I felt like there was a bit more I needed to say about it. So there it is! The next post will be about something else...

Hormone Disruptors: Zombie Molecules?

As an herbalist and teacher concerned with health and healing I spend a lot of time talking about and addressing issues of toxicity, both within our bodies and within the environment that we are part of and on which we depend for our existence. Although the causes of chronic illness are very complex, toxicity is a major causal factor in the development of most if not all chronic conditions.

Toxins can affect our health in many ways. They can promote oxidation of important metabolic and structural molecules in our body. They can also react with these substances in other ways that alter their chemical properties. In addition, many toxins have the ability to bind to chemical receptors in our body, such as neurotransmitter and hormone receptors, and alter our body metabolism in undesirable ways. This latter group, those that can interact with hormone receptor sites, are often referred to as "hormone disruptors" and they are a particularly important and common group of environmental toxins that have been getting a lot of attention recently. They include numerous petrochemical products, components of plastics, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and many other chemicals that are used in industry, agriculture and medicine.

How is our Earth Mother supposed to support and heal us if we keep poisoning her?

Hormone disruptors are known to negatively affect the health of endocrine and other organs, and many of them are carcinogenic. They also have some other properties that are of particular concern. For instance, there is some recent research that indicates that at least some of them may have stronger actions in extremely dilute doses that are well below the accepted "safety limits" than in larger concentrations (see: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=low-doses-hormone-like-chemicals-may-have-big-effects).

Hormone disrupting chemicals are also known to produce epigenetic effects. This means that they can affect gene expression, turning on or off the action of genes in ways that alter the way they are supposed to be behaving. Animal research has demonstrated epigenetic effects from as little as a single exposure to a chemical and that the results can be passed on through multiple generations (see: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-chemical-exposure-that-keeps-go). If they can have such a profound effect after a single exposure, imagine what they might do when they are floating around in our body tissues and fluids for most of our life - not just one but hundreds or possibly thousands of them!

As if these insidious microscopic nasties weren't bad enough, some new research indicates that they have yet another property that takes their nastiness to a whole new (and scarier) level: they can rise from the dead! Apparently it's true (hopefully this won't spawn a whole new genre of nano-zombie movies!). Of course, the zombie analogy is a stretch. What's really going on is that in the environment a certain percentage of these molecules are broken down when exposed to light during the day. However, after the sun goes down some of them have the ability to regenerate themselves (see: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hormone-disruptors-rise-from-the-dead-like-zombies). This has profound implications concerning the persistence of these chemicals in the environment and also our ability to accurately assess their levels, since researchers tend to take samples to test for chemical pollutants during the day when their concentrations will tend to be lower.

This is me doing my zombie hormone disruptor imitation!

Lucky for us both the human body and the environment are extremely resilient. That isn't to say that they can take abuse indefinitely, but when I look at the level of abuse that we have inflicted on the Earth and that some people inflict on their bodies I am in awe of how much abuse living things, whether they are organisms or ecosystems, can take. It speaks to the incredible capacity of life to heal and regenerate!

So what can we do about it? Basically, do our best to minimize the amount of toxic crap that we put in and on our bodies and into our environment - and do it with a smile! There's no point getting stressed out about it (more toxic crap!). We can only do the best we can and try to keep a positive attitude. Gratefulness is a good place to start. We are less likely to pollute what we feel grateful for. Of course, it is best if we eat and drink certified organic food as much as possible; minimize consumption of canned foods; avoid food and drink that is packaged in plastics #1, #3, #6 and #7; use only natural cosmetic products; and minimize contact with thermal papers like those used in cash register receipts and cheaper fax machines. In addition, a bit of detoxing periodically is always a good idea. There are many herb friends that would be happy to help us along with that!

This burdock (Arctium x nothum) is the hybrid between common burdock (A. minus) and great burdock (A. lappa).

The roots of all three are excellent for helping to eliminate hormone disruptors and other toxins from our body.

One day I hope to do a post on herbal detoxification. In the mean time you can find more information in my previous posts More Bad News Concerning Phthalates, More Bad News About BPA (and Friends!), and More Bad News About BPA, Postscript. One of them has a link to an article on detoxing that I wrote a number of years ago.

Chaga and the Wild Harvesting Dilemma

There are many wild spaces where I love to walk and, when necessary, harvest herbs. Whenever I explore a new area or trail, I keep a record of what species grow there. For those herbs that I use in my practice, I will also estimate the approximate amount (in litres of tincture) that can be sustainably harvested from the area of any species that are growing in sufficient quantity. Since plant populations change, I update these records every time I visit an area. As someone who wild harvests almost all of the medicines that I use, this information is very important to me. I maintain a data base in which I keep track of it.

Every year I try to visit a few new areas. This is partly because I want to deepen my relationship with the region where I live and one of the ways I do that is to get to know its diversity of landscapes and ecosystems. However, in exploring new areas I am also keeping track of the medicines that grow there. I like to have as many locations as possible to harvest each of the medicines that I use so that I don't have to harvest them in any particular region more than once every few years. I am extremely anal about respecting the medicines and making sure that they are harvested in a sustainable manner. I have written about this in more detail in my post Wild Harvesting Herbs.

In my practice I use several medicinal fungi. One of the fungi that I harvest is clinker polypore (Inonotus obliquus), better known these days as chaga. The name chaga is an anglicized version of the Russian version of the name of the fungus in the language of the Komi people of central Russia. Since this fungus has been popularized as chaga, very few people know its English name.

Clinker polypore (Inonotus obliquus), better known as chaga.

Chaga is a fungus that grows primarily on birch trees (Betula spp.) in the region where I live. It has been used for various purposes by many traditional peoples throughout the temperate and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere where it grows. Until the last decade or so, most people in our society had never heard of it. However, it has become popularized in recent years, which is not a good thing! This fungus grows very slowly and is difficult to cultivate. In addition, so far the medicinal properties of the cultivated fungus are significantly inferior to the wild harvested fungus. Another concern is that this is not your typical wood rotting fungus. Most of the conks or bracket fungi that grow on living and dead trees are actually the reproductive organs or fruiting bodies of organisms that grow as a network of filamentous mycelia beneath the bark or through the wood. When we harvest the fruiting body of a fungus, we are not harvesting the main part of the organism. However, chaga doesn't grow this way. The part that appears growing out of the side of birch trees is not the fruit. It is the actual fungus. Chaga rarely fruits and usually only after the tree dies. So, when we harvest chaga, we are harvesting the main body of the organism.

When walking through areas with a lot of birch trees, I used to see a fair amount of chaga. However, in the last couple of years what I am mostly seeing is a lot of trees from which the chaga has been removed and very little chaga itself. This is not simply a matter of a few people harvesting some for personal use. With the popularization of this fungus it seems that there are some people who think of it as a free resource that they can harvest at will in order to make some money. What I'm finding is that most of the people out there harvesting chaga are doing their best to gouge every last bit of it out of the tree. Remember, in this case they aren't just harvesting the fruit and leaving the organism intact. They are harvesting the whole fungus! In addition, they are doing a lot of damage to the trees that it grows on, leaving gaping wounds through which the trees can easily be affected by insects or disease.

When I harvest chaga, I only harvest it in areas where it is plentiful; I only harvest from a small percentage of the fungi growing in the area; and I only harvest part of any given conk and leave 50% or more of it intact. What I'm seeing out there is the result of people harvesting every fungus they can find and doing their best to completely extract it from the tree it is growing on. Needless to say, given that chaga rarely fruits and grows very slowly, this fungus is rapidly becoming scarce in the more accessible areas where it was once relatively common.

Chaga harvested correctly: not cutting too deep and leaving more than half of the fungus intact.

It is ironic that the demand for chaga is due to a growing interest in "natural healing". However, this is the antithesis of what natural healing is really about! Natural healing is about cultivating more balanced and harmonious relationships with ourselves and the world we live in. There is nothing balanced or harmonious about the consumerism driven and disrespectful way that chaga is being torn from the landscape. This is something that many people still don't get. Our lack of health in body, heart, mind and spirit is largely due to how we interact with the world. We live in a society that is way out of balance and as long as we continue to perpetuate the unsustainable paradigm that underlies the status quo we will never really be healthy!

One of the many fallacies of the current Western world view is that we are individuals. It's all about me! It's OK to rape the ecosystem to provide me with what I want. In truth, there are no individuals. Our life depends on the life of our Earth Mother and all of the beings that we share this life with. Everything we do affects everything else and will inevitably come back to bite us if it isn't done with respect and wisdom.

If we are trying to live "green" or "natural" we have a responsibility to investigate the reality behind the latest "green" or "natural" products. We can't necessarily trust the word of anyone who is trying to sell us something. That doesn't mean that they are always manipulative or deceptive - but they often are. Even people who mean well are less likely to dig too deeply into something if their livelihood depends on it. Inevitably, we need to do some research for ourselves. For example: electric cars aren't green or sustainable if they use electricity that is produced by coal plants; solar panels are not green or sustainable if it takes more energy to make them than they will produce in their lifetime, or manufacturing them requires the use of rare and/or toxic elements; shipping exotic "superfoods" half way around the world when there are foods of similar or better nutrient density growing in the area where we live is not green or sustainable - and who knows what environmental transgressions may have been committed where they were grown or harvested? Farming and harvesting practices are not something we can easily verify for plants that come from distant regions. Similarly, wild harvesting foods or medicines on a commercial scale is almost always unsustainable.

Getting back to chaga, the use of this fungus has been popularized in several books and articles, and by the people selling it. As a result, it has become one of the latest and most popular fad herbs. Proponents of its use are recommending it be consumed as a tea and that it be drunk liberally. Some people recommend drinking the tea several times per day for many months or even indefinitely. Looking at the bigger picture, there are several concerns with this scenario. Firstly, chaga is the strongest medicinal fungus that I have used. It is not appropriate for liberal use on an ongoing basis. Like all medicines, it needs to be used with respect. Secondly, using it as a tea requires that it be used in much larger quantities compared to using it as a tincture because the amount of herb required per unit dose is much larger for teas. With the amount of chaga that will keep someone in tea for a few weeks, I can make enough tincture to supply my entire herbal practice for several months! I realize that it was traditionally used as a tea, however, I have found the tincture to be as or more effective at least when prepared by the method that I use (for more information see my previous post Making Medicine, Part 3). Finally, because of the way it grows, chaga simply can not be sustainably harvested on any kind of scale. If we want to harvest a fungus on a very limited commercial scale, it should be one that is very common and produces abundant annual fruitings that can be harvested while leaving the fungus undisturbed. An example of a fungus that might possibly fit into this category is birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus), which has some similar properties and constituents as chaga, although they do have there differences. However, even "limited" commercial harvesting is not really sustainable because who is going to control how many people are doing it and how much they are harvesting? We're not talking about a village healer harvesting it to supply the needs of a small village in a remote area. If there is a demand for it and money to be made, it won't be long before the amount being harvested reaches detrimental levels. Harvesting the fruiting body might not kill or harm the fungus, but it will reduce its rate of reproduction. In reality, the only fungi that should be sold commercially for medicines and especially for foods (since they are consumed in much larger quantities) are those that have been grown commercially - certified organic of course!

A fruiting of birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus) growing out of a fallen paper birch (Betula papyrifera) log.

Saying that wild harvesting medicines is unsustainable might sound like a contradiction coming from an herbalist who uses almost exclusively wild harvested medicines! However, what I am saying is that there are very few herbs that can handle being wild harvested on a commercial scale. A few herbalists wild harvesting herbs for their healing practice and a few more herb enthusiasts harvesting some herbs for personal use is sustainable if they are harvesting the herbs in an ethical manner. In fact, these days most herbalists don't wild harvest very many or any of their medicines. There are many reasons for this. One of the main reasons is that it is extremely time consuming. At the most, if I harvest the medicines in a respectful way I can only harvest enough to make a sufficient amount of tincture to practice two full days per week (6-8 clients per day)! Personally, I only practice one day per week. The rest of the time I am teaching and doing other work. Even practicing one day per week a significant proportion of my time is devoted to wild harvesting from April to November. During the peak harvesting periods (May to July and November) it takes up the largest proportion of my time.

There are still a few herbs that I either can't harvest in sufficient quantities to meet the needs of my practice, or for which I haven't found a suitable substitute that grows in the region where I live. I need to purchase these herbs, fresh whenever possible, to make a few of the tinctures that I need. I always purchase these herbs certified organically grown. If I can't wild harvest an herb myself or get it from a certified organically grown source, I don't use it. I never purchase commercially wild harvested herbs.

That being said, due to the increasing popularity of herbs and herbalism coupled with our unsustainable population growth, there may come a time when it is no longer possible for me to continue wild harvesting the herbs that I use. The wild populations of herbs simply won't be able to handle it. At that point I will grow as many as I can and purchase the rest. But I'll still go out there and continue to deepen my relationship with the wild herbs and the lands where they live.

There is no doubt that there are a few wild herbs that can handle some level of commercial wild harvesting at this point. However, there aren't many and a lot of them are not well known or commonly used. The criteria that would need to be met for an herb to fall into this category are: it must be very plentiful and adaptable, more or less invasive by nature; it must prefer to live in the kinds of habitats that humans create when we change the landscape; it must be able to be harvested without negatively impacting the ecosystem where it lives. In North America, most of the herbs that fall into this category are Eurasian plants that have naturalized here, such as common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), burdock (Arctium spp.) and red clover (Trifolium pratense). In my region, the only native species that I would include are a few species of asters (Symphyotrichum spp.) and goldenrods (Solidago spp.). Obviously, it will be different in different regions. Another possibility is using the parts of some commercially harvested tree species that are discarded during the harvesting process, such as the leaves and young twigs of conifers like white pine (Pinus strobus).

Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) is one of the few native Ontario herbs
that could be wild harvested commercially to some degree.

One of the reasons that people like wild harvested herbs is because there is a belief that their medicinal properties are superior to those of cultivated herbs, even if they are organically cultivated. For the most part this is true, but it doesn't have to be! Wild harvested herbs have a lot more strength and vitality than cultivated herbs even though cultivated herbs may sometimes look better. This is partly because cultivated herbs are often grown in conditions (soil type, moisture, amount of direct sunlight, monoculture, etc.) that are not typical of their natural habitat. However, the main reason is because cultivated plants are pampered. We all need a certain amount of stress to maintain a decent level of health and vitality. Plants are no exception. Too much stress can weaken them, but so can too little stress. For instance, a certain amount of drought stress is good for most plants. How much depends on the species. Watering them every time the soil gets a bit dry usually isn't a good idea. However, letting them dry out completely isn't either. Also, every organism needs some competition. This can be accomplished by careful companion planting. It is also a good idea to allow some "weeds" to grow, as long as they aren't allowed to get the upper hand by crowding out the herbs we are growing, above the ground or below it. Most "weeds" are useful anyway, either as medicines or foods.

So that is my rant about chaga and the ethics of wild harvesting. Once more, for more information I recommend reading my earlier post Wild Harvesting Herbs. In the mean time, the chaga is rapidly disappearing from the more accessible areas of southern and central Ontario. Although chaga is a great medicine when used correctly and with respect, I strongly recommend considering other medicinal fungi that are available from organically grown sources such as lacquered polypore or reishi (Ganoderma lucidum), hen-of-the-woods or maitake (Grifola frondosa), or oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus).

You might also be interested in my follow-up post More On Chaga and the YouTube video Michael Vertolli On Chaga.