Review of Effects of Growing Methods on Pharmacological Profiles of Herbal Medicines

Abstract

Herbal medicine and phyto-pharmaceuticals make a great portion of the materia medica and therapies currently used in Naturopathic Medicine. Since Naturopathic physicians act as both major wholesale consumers of these products and as teachers of their patients, they have a need to be well informed about the methods used in growing and collecting medical herbs and the effects these methods has on both the environment and the quality of the medicine. Currently, more than 400,000 tons of medical and aromatic plants are traded yearly, with the majority of these plants have been procured by collection this lead to supply as well as environmental concerns, since nearly 15,000 of the estimated 50,000-70,000 species used for medicine and cosmetics are threatened or endangered. This thesis is an attempt to educate naturopaths about the effects of growing conditions on qualities and quantities of constituent in medical herbs. The author will first review the basics of the modern use of medical herbs and their sources, their phytochemistry (constituents), and how these constituents are theorized to have evolved to fluctuate due to environmental changes. The author will then review the current literature on the effects of growing methods on medical herbs constituents, and attempt to draw some generalizations about growing environments from this research and the current understanding of physiology and molecular pathways in vascular plants. Besides agriculture and wildcrafting (collection), two alternative sources for herbal medicine and phyto-pharmaceuticals are discussed: alleycropping and tissue suspension culture with elicitors.