Thursday, August 10, 2006

Tree Killers Strike

Associated Press released a story today that shows a disturbing fact about using herbal remedies.

The story was about poachers stripping the bark from slippery elm trees in a national forest in Kentucky. (Slippery elm is used for coughs and is soothing to the digestive tract, and used externally to treat wounds , burns and skin irritations.) Unfortunately, when you strip all the bark around a tree, it dies.

I always stress that you should only buy herbal products from reputable suppliers. Slippery elm is not the only herb at risk in the wild. Many traditional remedies have been driven to the brink of extinction in the wild by over-harvesting. Eliminating the market for illegally or unethically harvested herbs is the only way to stop the poaching.


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