Herbal Medicine, from Field to Factory
Posted - June 8, 2009
Gaia Herbs Announces Annual Summer Solstice Open House
America’s Gaia Herbs, grower and manufacturer of organic botanical medicines, welcomes the public to its annual Summer Solstice Open House. The June 20th event will take place 10 am – 4 pm in Brevard, NC, United States of America. Visitors may tour the 250-acre certified organic farm and state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.
The company grows herbs such as Echinacea, California Poppy, and Valerian. All should be in full bloom June 20, one of the longest days of the year. Walk the fields, or ride on a tractor-led wagon to each spot.
Tours of Gaia’s certified organic manufacturing facility will give guests a behind-the-scenes understanding of how herbs are extracted, formulated, encapsulated and packaged for sale. All tours are offered on a first-come-first served basis.
Gaia is a USA-based certified organic grower and manufacturer of liquid herbal extracts. The company cultivates 250 acres of medicinal herbs which, along with operations at the 36,000 square-foot manufacturing facility, are organically certified annually by Oregon Tilth under the USDA’s National Organic Program.
Light refreshments and entertainment will be provided, including face painting, local music, and songs and stories by noted naturalist, herbalist and storyteller Dan Noland. An eco-highlight, staff will conduct workshops on how to make a rain barrel for drought management.
Visitors are encouraged to bring water bottles - refills are free! Wear shoes and clothing suited for a day on the farm.
For a complete schedule and directions, visit www.gaiaherbs.com.
Yacon
Posted - May 1, 2008
Yacon: Natural Sugar Control
By Adriana Michael - as printed in O.W.N. Summer 2008
A South American tuber grown in the Andes could offer valuable sugar control and immune system bonuses to the human body. The yacon, called an apple or pear of the earth for its sweet, crispy taste when washed and eaten fresh, grows between 1,500 and 2,500 metres above sea level. The Andean peoples have long used the root to ease health problems like liver ailments, says Dr. Cass Ingram, a natural health expert who has written a dozen books touching on functional foods such as yacon.
“South American traditional medicines have never been written about in common books. There’s been a lack of quality articles describing their ethnic use and the medicinal properties,” says Ingram, explaining yacon’s low profile. “No one has published about what the properties are.”
Yacon contains a high percentage of inulin, a fructo-oligo-saccharide or FOS. The body does not convert this class of sweet-tasting chemicals into energy, and so they rank a zero on the glycemic index scale. “This is the perfect functional food for resting the pancreas,” says Ingram.
Inulin mimicks better-known insulin, Ingram says, producing all kinds of health benefits. “Insulin has everything to do with how we digest our sugars and starches,” he says.
Good bacteria in the gut feed off the inulin, Ingram says. Yacon functions both as sugar control and as pro-biotic, thus boosting the immune system.
Caution is required to ensure a marketable product retains the benefits of the pure root. “We knew if we could keep it unprocessed, then it would be medicinal,” Ingram says of his early work with yacon.
Organic products derived from yacon are gradually becoming available in North America. Careful methods are required to ensure desirable inulin is obtained while unwanted fructose sugar, which occurs only in the root’s fibrous parts, is not. “If you don’t treat the product properly, what’s going to happen is that you will obtain only fructose sugar, which is not good,” says Jorge Urena, president and CEO of Uhtco Corporation. Uhtco is a well known supplier of organic yacon products, and the main importer to Canada.
Ingram worked with Urena and Uhtco’s partners in Peru to get organic yacon in its highest potency. “We asked him to make extracts that were unprocessed. No alcohol. No heat,” Ingram says. Working with small farmers in Peru and having built a Peruvian processing facility to house the required machines, Uhtco’s processing plant introduced yacon syrups and the line is expanding.
Yacon has a citrus, light caramel flavour, Ingram says. Urena prefers to use the syrups as a sweetener, while Ingram pours his over yogurt or other dairy products. “It’s more interesting for its aroma,” Ingram says, and its health properties.Whatever the impetus, many people today have far too much sugar in their diet and could certainly benefit from the natural, healthy powers of this exotic and not widely known “apple of the earth”.
Maca Medicine
Posted - September 1, 2006
A Reliable Supplement: Maca
O.W.N. News Network - as printed in O.W.N. Fall 2006
Maca has been used as a folk medicine for centuries to enhance physical performance and endurance in the physically demanding environment of high altitudes. It has also been taken for the enhancement of fertility and sexual behavior in men and women, as a remedy for menopausal symptoms, as an antidepressant and to help the healing of wounds.
“The flavor is strong and bitter. As a food, you would need to develop a taste for it, the same as with coffee”, says John Harrison, managing director of Ecotrends Ecologics, Canadian distributor of natural healthcare products. “Maca has been around for centuries. In North America and Europe it has been introduced in capsules”.
Mr. Harrison explains that to enter the market with maca and any other natural supplements there is need for expensive research and trials, before you obtain the NPN (New Product Number). “Strict regulations are important to increase the credibility of real natural health products, but trials following the drug model with a synthetic substance do not really match the conditions of a natural product. It is important to note that super natural foods may not have the expected effect if, in the processing or extraction, the value of the active ingredients present in the original food is lost.”
There are two methods to process maca, but only the drying process yielding a non-gelatinized substance conserving undisturbed its vital nutrients and other elements ensures the best results, notes Dr. Luis Jáuregui, Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine, Medical College of Ohio and Co-Director of the Center for Applied Pharmacology, University of Toledo, Ohio.
Gut Reaction
Posted - February 1, 2006
Gut Reaction: Mind the Gap
By Johanna Olarte - as printed in O.W.N. Spring 2006
“The primary seat of insanity generally is in the region of the stomach and intestines”, said the father of modern psychiatry, Dr. Louis Pinel. Just a quaint statement? Not so, says Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride, who runs a clinic in Cambridge (U.K.). She found that many of those suffering from neurological disorders such as autism, attention deficit disorder, dyspraxia and dyslexia usually suffer several disorders at a time and eczema as well.
“I have yet to meet a child or an adult with autism, ADHD/ADD, asthma, eczema, allergies, dyspraxia or dyslexia, who has not got digestive abnormalities”, says Dr. Campbell McBride Matter over mind? Yes, she thought. So she has deeply studied what is described as the Gut and Psychology (GAP) Syndrome. In her book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome: Natural treatment for autism, ADHD/ADD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, depression and schizophrenia, Dr. Campbell McBride shows how the GAP Syndrome develops and how to treat it: eat better.
Only the right kinds and amounts of flora, she shows, let the body absorb the nutrients it needs. Without them, we can ‘starve.’ And attract disease. Dr. Campbell highlights that studies have shown that people often excrete pills and food supplements without them being absorbed by the body. Flora comes first!
Not only Dr. Campbell McBride is interested in gut reactions. Swedish workers at Tetra pack took flora supplements in a study. A control group didn’t. They became sick with stomach and respiratory ailments over twice as the experimental group.
What can we do about this lack of flora? One solution is flora supplements. But with more than 500 types of good bacteria in our gut we carry over two kilos of them in our intestines, floral supplements are only part of the answer. The other part? Natural real food. Pickles. Fermented foods, macrobiotic dishes, sauerkraut, natural and organic quality yoghurt and some cheeses, enrich our inner - and innards! - ecology.
A word of caution: these floral supplements, called probiotics, must be of great quality, fresh and tested. Beneficial bacteria must be alive when you take them. And retailers at natural health stores should get consumers to visit doctors and naturopaths to find out what particular probiotics and supplements they need. It seems that buying just by gut reaction brings but poor results.
