2.4 El Desarrollo Sostenible
2.4.9 El Buen Vivir
2.4.9.1 El Buen Vivir en América Latina
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In various commercial formulations, goldenseal is used to treat nasal congestion, mouth sores, eye in-fections, ringworm, hemorrhoids, acne, and as a sur-face antiseptic. It has a reputation for boosting the immune system. As noted below, self-medication with goldenseal preparations is not recommended.
Nevertheless goldenseal is now a component of hundreds of commercial medicinal formulations, sold in national chain drugstores, department stores, convenience stores, health food stores, and mail-order businesses. It is particularly in demand by consumers with severe chronic diseases, espe-cially patients with AIDS.
Toxicity
Use of goldenseal in modern medicine is limited because of its toxicity. Dangerous levels may need to be administered to achieve therapeutically useful effects. Even external use can produce ulceration.
Taken orally in excess dosage, goldenseal can pro-duce convulsions like those propro-duced by strychnine, and may lead to paralysis, respiratory failure and death. Eating fresh plant material can ulcerate and inflame the mucous membranes of the mouth. Since goldenseal can promote miscarriage, it should not be taken during pregnancy. People with cardiac prob-lems have been advised to avoid goldenseal as it can raise blood pressure. Goldenseal is a good example of how medicines intergrade into poisons. Its drugs are potent, but pose a serious risk, thus requiring professional guidance and research.
This herb was listed in a 1995 Health Canada document (see “Herbs used as non-medicinal in-gredients in nonprescription drugs for human use,”
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hpb-dgps/therapeut/
drhtmeng/policy.html) as a herb that is unaccept-able as a nonprescription drug product for oral use.
Chemistry
The rhizome of goldenseal is a source of the medicinal alkaloids hydrastine (1.5–4%), berberine (0.5–6%), and berberastine (2–3%), with lesser amounts of canadine and some minor alkaloids.
Non-medicinal Uses
Indians of eastern North America used gold-enseal as a yellow dye for fabrics and a stain for skin. The juice imparts a yellow color to skin and clothing and, mixed with indigo, produces green-colored dyes. Indians also mixed goldenseal with bear grease for use as an insect repellent.
Agricultural and Commercial Aspects The prominent use of goldenseal in proprietary medicines of past times has been resurrected in a growing popularity of the “health food" industry.
Goldenseal has become one of the top selling herbs of North America. Currently there are approximately 40 over-the-counter drugs containing goldenseal or
Hydrastis canadensis (goldenseal)
86 Canadian Medicinal Crops
its active ingredients on the Canadian market as elixirs, tablets, capsules or suppositories. It is also sold as an ingredient of some herbal teas. When goldenseal tea was rumored (incorrectly) to pre-vent detection of morphine in urine samples, it also became popular with drug users for prevent-ing the detection of marihuana and cocaine. It has even been used on drugged race-horses.
Like ginseng and May-apple, a large part of the supply of goldenseal came from mountainous re-gions of Kentucky and West Virginia, where it was collected by people whose economy was based largely on the virgin forests of the steep mountain slopes and deep valleys. In the late 1850s it was valued at $2.20/kg, but this value decreased as the market became adequately supplied. In the late 1800s 63 500 – 68 000 kg were collected annually, most of this being used in North America, with only 680 kg exported to Europe. About 550 dry roots are required to make one kg. Since it was col-lected mostly in the Ohio Valley region, Cincinnati became the major source of supply.
Although much of the current supply is from wild-collected plants, goldenseal has become a widely cultivated plant. Because increasing de-mand poses a threat of extirpation in some areas, it is possible that most of the future supply will come from cultivated plants. It has been cultivated in Arkansas, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin, the an-nual production from cultivated plants exceeding several tonnes. Some ginseng growers have found economic benefit in growing some goldenseal as well because it has similar environmental require-ments allowing the use of similar equipment. It may be a little easier to grow than ginseng be-cause it tolerates slightly higher light intensities and is less subject to diseases and pests. Because diseases make it difficult or impossible to grow ginseng in the same woodland location as consec-utive plantings, goldenseal has excellent potential as a rotation crop for ginseng. The growing popu-lar market for goldenseal products suggests a po-tential for use of the plant as a diversification crop in southern Canada.
Myths, Legends, Tales, Folklore, and Interesting Facts
•
After the American civil war, goldenseal was an ingredient of many patent medicines, notably in“Dr. Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery.” Un-like ginseng, which was collected entirely for the export market, goldenseal was consumed in
the US, and came to acquire much of ginseng’s reputation as a panacea and longevity tonic.
Hence one popular name for goldenseal was
“poor man’s ginseng.”
•
It has been estimated that more than 95% of the above-ground biomass of goldenseal is produced within the first month of the growing season.•
In 1997, the World Wildlife Fund included gold-enseal as one of the “10 most wanted” species in the world (10 of the most threatened species in demand for international trade).Selected References
Ahluwalia, S.S. 1997. Goldenseal — American gold.
Walden House, Bronx, NY. 22 pp.
Bergner, P. 1997. The healing power of echinacea, goldenseal, and other immune system herbs. Prima, Rocklin, CA. 322 pp.
Blecher, M.B., and Douglass, K. 1997. Gold in goldenseal. Hosp. Health Netw. 71(20): 50–52.
Bowers, H. 1891. A contribution to the life history of Hydrastis canadensis. Bot. Gaz. 16: 73–82.
Caille, G., LeClerc, D., and Mockle, J.A. 1970. Dos-age spectrophoto-fluoromètrique des alcaloïdes berbérine, tétrahydroberbérine, hydrastine et appli-cation à l’extrait sec et à la teinture d’Hydrastis candensis L. Can. J. Pharm. Sci. 5(2): 55–58.
Carlquist, S. 1995. Wood and bark anatomy of Ranunculaceae (including Hydrastis) and Glaucidi-aceae. Aliso 14(2): 65–84.
Catling, P.M., and Sinclair, A. 1998. The history of the golden seal. Recovery - an Endangered Species News-letter (Canadian Wildlife Service) 1998(Spring): 12.
Cavin, J.C., Krassner, S.M., and Rodriguez, E. 1987.
Plant-derived alkaloids active against Trypanosoma cruzi. J. Ethnopharmacol. 19: 89–94.
Combie, J., Nugent, T.E., and Tobin, T. 1982. Inability of goldenseal to interfere with the detection of mor-phine in urine. J. Equine Vet. Sci. 2: 16–21.
Creasey, W.A. 1979. Biochemical effects of berberine.
Biochem. Pharm. 28: 1081–1084.
Davis, J.M. 1995. Advances in Goldenseal Cultivation.
N.C. State Univ., Agricult. Ext. Serv. Hortic. Info.
Leafl. 131 (revised 6/96). 5 pp. [available on internet at http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-131.html]
Davis, J.M. 1998. Goldenseal. In Richters second commercial herb growing conference — transcripts.
Edited by R. Berzins, H. Snell and C. Richter.
Richters, Goodwood, ON. pp. 133–143.
Dyke, S.F., and Tiley, E.P. 1975. The synthesis of ber-berastine. Tetrahedron 31: 561–568.
Eichenberger, M.D., and Parker, G.R. 1976. Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis L.), distribution, phenology and biomass in an oak-hickory forest. Ohio J. Sci. 76(5):
204–210.
Ford, B.A. 1997. Hydrastis. In Flora of North America north of Mexico, Vol. 3. Edited by Flora of North
America Editorial Committee. Oxford University Press, New York, NY. pp. 87-88.
Foster, S. 1991. Goldenseal, Hydrastis canadensis.
American Botanical Council, Austin, TX. Bot. Ser.
No. 309: 1–8.
Galeffi, C., Cometa, M.F., Tomassini, L., and Nicoletti, M. 1997. Canadinic acid: An alkaloid from Hydrastis canadensis. Planta Med. 63: 194.
Genest, K., and Hughes, W. 1969. Natural products in Canadian pharmaceuticals IV. Can. J. Pharm. Sci. 4:
41–45.
Gleye, J., Ahond, A., and Stanislas, E. 1974. La Canada-line: nouvel alacaloïde d’Hydrastis canadensis. Phyto-chemistry 13: 675–676.
Haage, L.J., and Ballard, L.J. 1989. A growers guide to goldenseal. Nature’s Cathedral, Norway, IA.
Hamon, N.W. 1990. Herbal medicine: goldenseal. Can.
Pharm. J. 123: 508–510.
Hardacre, J., Henderson, V.G., Collins, F.B., Andersen, E.L., Harris, V.M., Fewster, B., Beck, R., Bowman, D., and Donzelot, E.L. 1962. The wildcrafters golden-seal manual. Wildcrafters Publications, Rockville, IN.
Henkel, A., and Klugh, G.F. 1908. The cultivation and handling of goldenseal. U.S. Dep. Agric., Bur. Plant Ind. Circ. No. 6. 19 pp.
Hobbs, C. 1990. Goldenseal in early American medi-cal botany. Pharmacy in History 32(2): 79–82.
Holland, H.L., Jeffs, P.W., Capps, and MacLean, D.B.
1979. The biosynthesis of protoberberine and related isoquinoline alkaloids. Can. J. Chem. 57: 1588–1597.
Hoot, S.B. 1991. The phylogeny of the Ranunculaceae based on epidermal microcharacters and macromorph-ology. Syst. Bot. 16: 741–755.
Kelly, J. 1977. Herb collector’s manual and marketing guide: ginseng growers and collectors handbook: a valuable guide for growers of ginseng and golden seal, medicinal herb and root collectors, containing olde tyme herbe recipes and outdoor money-making ideas. 5th ed. Wildcrafters, Looneyville, WV. 97 pp.
Konsler, T.R. 1987. Woodland production of ginseng and goldenseal. Stn. Bull. Purdue Univ. Agric. Exp.
Sta., West Lafayette, IN 518: 175–178.
Li, T.S.C., and Oliver, A. 1995. Specialty Crops info-sheet: goldenseal. Province of British Columbia, Min-istry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. 2 pp.
Liu, C.X., Xiao, P.G., and Liu, G.S. 1991. Studies on plant resources, pharmacology and clinical treatment with berberine. Phytother. Res. 5: 228–230.
Lloyd, J.U. 1912. The cultivation of Hydrastis. J. Am.
Pharm. Assoc. 1: 5–12.
Lloyd, J.U., and Lloyd, C.G. 1884–1885. Drugs and Medicines of North America, Vol. 1, Ranunculaceae.
Clarke, Cincinnati, OH. 304 pp.
Lloyd, J.U., and Lloyd, C.G. 1908. Hydrastis cana-densis. Bull. Lloyd Library of Botany, Pharmacy and Materia Medica 10. 184 pp. [Reproduction of por-tion of Lloyd and Lloyd 1884–1885, cited above.]
Messana, I., La Bua, R., and Galeffi, C. 1980. The alka-loids of Hydrastis canadensis L. (Ranunculaceae).
Two new alkaloids: hydrastidine and isohydrastine.
Gaz. Chim. Ital. 110: 539–543.
Sack, R.B., and Froehlich, J.L. 1982. Berberine inhibits intestinal secretory response of Vibrio cholerae toxins and E. coli enterotoxins. Infect. Immunol. 35: 471–475.
Sievers, A.F. 1949. Goldenseal under cultivation. U.S.
Dep. Agric. Farmers’ Bull. 613. 14 pp. [Revision of Van Fleet, W., 1916, 14 pp.]
Shideman, F.E. 1950. A review of the pharmacology and therapeutics of Hydrastis and its alkaloids, hydrastine, berberine and canadine. Bull. Nat. Form. Comm.
[United Kingdom] 18(102): 3–19.
Shipley, N. 1956. The hidden harvest. Can. Geogr. J.
52: 178–181.
Tobe, H., and Keating, R.C. 1985. The morphology and anatomy of Hydrastis (Ranunculales): system-atic re-evaluation of the genus. Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 98: 291–316.
Veninga, L., and Zaricor, B. 1976. Goldenseal/etc: a pharmacognosy of wild herbs. Ruka Publications, Santa Cruz, CA.
Whetzel, H.H. 1918. The Botrytis blight of golden seal.
Phytopathology. 8: 73–76.
World Wide Web Links
(Warning. The quality of information on the internet varies from excellent to erroneous and highly misleading. The links below were chosen because they were the most informative sites located at the time of our internet search. Since medici-nal plants are the subject, information on medicimedici-nal usage is often given. Such information may be flawed, and in any event should not be substituted for professional medical guidance.)
Commercial production of ginseng and goldenseal:
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/NewCropsNews/94-4-1/ginseng.html
Purdue University Centre for New Crops and Plant Products [several informative documents]:
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/nexus/Hydrastis_canadensis_nex.html Monograph from J.E. Simon, A.F. Chadwick and L.E. Craker:
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/med-aro/factsheets/GOLDENSEAL.html
The information on this page compiled by Elizabeth Burch N.D., the eclectic physician:
http://www.eclecticphysician.com/hydrastis.shtml
AGIS ethnobotany database:
http://probe.nal.usda.gov:8300/cgi-bin/webace?db=ethnobotdb&class=Taxon&object=Hydrastis +canadensis
AGIS phytochemical database, phytochemicals of Hydrastis canadensis:
http://probe.nal.usda.gov:8300/cgi-bin/table-maker?db=phytochemdb&definition+file=chems-in-taxon&arg1=Hydrastis+canadensis
Botanical collections. UConn pharmacy garden collection. Hydrastis canadensis [not much information but has good links]:
http://florawww.eeb.uconn.edu/acc_num\971052.htm
Canterbury Farms herb of the month [has several good links]:
http://www.nwgardening.com/goldenseal.html Goldenseal: are there substitutes?:
http://www.frontierherb.com/herbs/notes/herbs.notes.no9.html
Goldenseal, Hydrastis canadensis, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Southern Crop Protection & Food Research Centre:
http://res.agr.ca/lond/pmrc/study/newcrops/goldseal.html
Goldenseal masking of drug test from fiction to fallacy: an historical anomaly:
http://www.frontierherb.com/herbs/notes/herbs.notes.no7.html Advances in goldenseal cultivation:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-131.html Wildlife notes: goldenseal – plant in peril?:
http://troy2.fsl.wvnet.edu/wildlife/gseal.htm Sources of goldenseal seeds, plants or roots:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-123.html
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90 Canadian Medicinal Crops
Laminariales (kelp species)
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