A Conversation with the Respected Herbalist, Author and Famed Photographer Steven Foster

by Sydney L Murray

Introduction

Herbal products are currently integrated into many people's lives. We ingest them, are advised to take them and believe that their natural properties will be an essential component in assisting us in being healthier. Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with a man who is a leading expert in herbal medicines. He has over twenty-three years experience and is an accomplished author, photographer and consultant specializing in medicinal and aromatic plants.

SLM: When and where did you acquire your love of plants?

SF: Well actually it was a walk in the woods between my junior and senior year of high school, I was with a friend of mine and we were out at a favorite waterfall spot and she pointed out a trillium in bloom and told me that her grandfather had said it was called Stinking Benjamin. It was used as an aid in childbirth and at that moment, I said, "That's interesting, I want to learn the names and uses of all the plants." That's where it began summer of 1974.

SLM: Can you tell me a little of your professional history?

SF: During that same summer I had an antique shop I was interested in old ways of doing things and was interested in a career in the museum field. So in my senior year of high school in Cumberland Maine, I was on a work-study program and was interested in obtaining a job with an antique dealer or a restoration firm in the Portland Maine area. I had interviewed at several places including the Shaker Community at SabbathDay Lake Maine. And I got a job there initially at the Shaker Museum. The Shakers in Maine are the last active (Shaker) Community. And on my first day on the job, my first task, I was sent out to dig burdock root for one of the sisters who had hives and wanted to use this plant as a blood purifier. After being there a few weeks I ended up working full time in the herb department at the SabbathDay Lake Shaker Community which maintains the oldest herb business in the country (United States) and has existed in one form or another since 1799.

I ended up being there for four years, and after a few months actually ended up taking over the herb business and doing it on a full time basis. We had about 70 products. And over that four-year period I had established three acres of production herb gardens. We had an additional 1700 acres of wild areas that we managed for the harvest for additional herbs, primarily working with the forester there. So really, everything I'm doing now, I started while I was at the Shaker Community. Writing, photography, lecturing, as well as growing, handling and learning about herbs. I was there from the time I was seventeen until twenty-one.

Actually, I bought my first camera in '75 or '76. My very first roll of film, from my very first camera was published in a book on Shaker furniture. "How to Build Shaker Furniture" by Thomas Moser.

So my photographic career started with my first camera and my first roll of film.

SLM: Well it certainly started out well.

SF: While I was there I had several teachers that taught me about different aspects of herbs and medicinal plants. One was Les Eastman and Les was an amateur botanist who was doing field work on endangered species for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Maine Audubon Society. And he would drive through the Shaker Village to get through various locations in Western Maine, and he would simply pick me and take me to the field with him.

So I learned Field Botany from him and how to identify and recognize plants and appreciate their scientific names and so forth. I also fell under the tutelage of a visitor to the Shaker Museum whom I met one day in 1976. She and a friend were taking a tour of the museum and I literally, ran into her on my way out one evening. She was taking a tour of the main dwelling house at that point. The guide took me aside and said, "This is a Chinese botanist and she wants to see your gardens."  That particular guide was someone who was volunteering at the Shaker Community that weekend and was a lawyer from New York named Jerry Werkin. And Jerry has since left the legal profession and now is the director of the Folk Art Museum in New York City. So he introduced me to this woman on the tour, named Dr. Shiu Ying Hu and Dr. Hu had come to the U.S. in 1945 to do graduate work in Botany at Harvard. She spent her entire career at Harvard. She's in her 90s and still works as a botanist. Anyway, she had come to Harvard to study with (Merit Linden Vernald) and (Elmer Merill) both of whom were leading botanists in the early half of the 20th century and both of whom happened to be self-taught botanists from Maine. Somehow, I reminded Dr. Hu of her teachers and she took an active interest in my education and career.

I took her to see American Ginseng in the wild, as she had seen many of the Asian species but had never seen American Ginseng in the wild. And that kind of solidified it (their relationship). In a walk with her through Harvard Yard in Cambridge Massachusetts she began pointing out things that I knew as common ornamental plants, like Forsythia Ginkgo and so forth. She started talking about their usage in traditional Chinese Medicine. At that point I developed an interest in Chinese Medicinal Plants in American Horticulture as well as Eastern Asiatic botany in general. It was Dr. Hu who pushed me in that direction.

SLM: What are your feelings on the use of chaste tree (vitex agnus castus) for the alleviation of Premenstrual Syndrome symptoms?

SF: There is actually a large body of literature on chaste tree. It has been used for the treatment of PMS for decades. It has an interesting history. Most of the modern scientific work on chaste tree began in Germany in the late 1930s and early 1940s. At that point it was primarily used as a (galacticog) something to stimulate milk flow. Particularly in the early years of World War II, it was used and researched for women, mostly in European cities women who were recent mothers and were not producing milk; probably because of the stress of living in cities which were being bombed. The researchers found that the chaste tree stimulated the milk production. And then later after the Second World War mechanisms of action were elucidated that suggested that it had a stimulating effect on Lutenizing Hormone (LH) which is involved as a chemical trigger mechanism in the menstrual cycle and was useful in allaying symptoms of what has come to be called PMS. So there is a tremendous body of literature, mostly German language literature on the use of Chaste Tree for PMS. One of the main caveats of chaste tree is that it has to be used for a relatively long period of time--from three to six months before results are evident. Which is an important point in herbal medicine in general. Herbs generally work much slower than conventional drugs, and Americans in general are used to popping pills for an affect that is relatively immediate. Herbs generally don't work that way, they usually work on a long term basis.

SLM: Was chaste tree used for menopausal symptoms?

SF: Yes it was widely used for various menopausal symptoms as well as for perimenopause but there is no controlled clinical literature on that particular area of interest.

SLM: Could you also elaborate on the use of black cohosh for menopausal symptoms as well as PMS?

SF: Yes, black cohosh like chaste tree emerged out of German phyto medicines. It had long been used in eclectic medical practice in the late 19th and early 20th century here in the U.S. for various menstrual difficulties, menstrual imbalances, as well as an anti-inflammatory. And in fact, was better known in the 19th century as an anti-inflammatory for rheumatic pains and things of that sort. Then (black cohosh) was championed by an eclectic physician named Dr. John King in the late 19th century for various gynecological conditions and was adopted in European phytomedicines in the 1930s and 1940s. And, in fact, in 1955 there was a conference in Germany on the use of Estrogen Replacement Therapy (ERT) for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. At that point there were 8-10 years experience of using Estrogen Replacement Therapy for menopausal symptoms and the experience began to collect a large number of side effects associated with Estrogen Replacement Therapy at that time. So one of the main points of this conference was to look for alternatives for Estrogen Replacement Therapy. There were a couple of papers presented on black cohosh at that point.

So the mid 1950s was the modern starting point for (the use of) black cohosh for menopausal symptoms. And then by 1961 or 1962 there were case reports published in the German medical literature on the successful use of black cohosh on several thousand women for menopausal symptoms; particularly in the reduction of the intensity and frequency of hot flashes, depressive moods, and/or mood swings associated with menopause. As well as a reduction of heavy bleeding associated with perimenopause. And so by the early 1960s it became a standard gynecological treatment for menopause in Germany. By the 1970s active fractions were identified, at least with proposed mechanisms of action, in the ongoing efforts by the German health authorities to bring a scientific basis to phytomedicines. In the 1980s and 1990s there have been at least a dozen controlled clinical trials, some with placebo and some with comparative substances like estrogen, which have all had positive results showing a reduction of symptoms associated with menopause (using black cohosh).

SLM: What herbs would be helpful for women's bones?

SF: Well there is some evidence that suggests that more research be done on black cohosh in that regard. There are about 28 species of cohoshes in the U.S., Asia and Europe. And several Asian species are used similarly in folk traditions or traditional medicine in Asia. There are a couple of interesting studies by Japanese research groups from the last 3-4 years which are animal studies, looking at mice and particularly calcium reabsorbtion in the bones after being treated with black cohosh or Chinese analogs to black cohosh. So certainly I think it would be interesting to see more studies in that regard.

SLM: Heart disease seems ever more prevalent what would be a good herb to combat heart disease or the prevention of heart disease?

SF: Probably the best herb there is hawthorn preparations. Hawthorn leaf and flower and/or berry preparations. Actually, there are more of the identified active components in the flowers than in the fruit, so most standardized products out of Europe use the flowers. Whereas in traditional Chinese medicine the official drug is the fruit of a Chinese species of Hawthorn.

SLM: So, would you use a tincture or an infusion of hawthorn?

SF: No I think the best thing for hawthorn would be a standardized extract. A lot of times we get hung up in the American market on standardization and what is, or what might be the active component and my feeling is that for the most part you need to take each herb on an individualized basis. But for the most part the value of the standardized extract is in providing predictable results in the dosage form specifically batch-to-batch consistency in manufacturing. And I don't think it's necessary to tout active ingredients in advertising and labeling. I think it does more to confuse the consumer than anything else. But it's best used as a control for batch to batch consistency in the manufacturing process.

SLM: There is a lot of concern in the botanical industry on standard control and efficacy. What is a solution for the wide variations in active ingredients and therefore efficacy product to product?

SF: First of all, when it comes to testing I become increasingly convinced that if you give the same plant material to a half-a-dozen different chemists who are running HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) or GC (gas chromatography), depending upon what substances they're looking for, and if you're doing qualitative analyses of active constituents, you're going to get a half-a-dozen varied results from the same plant material. So I think it's important to question the quality of the science and the consistency of the science that's used to make such judgments, because I think there is a lot of variables. As a direct answer to your question, unfortunately for the consumer it's pot luck out there in the American market. At this point the consumer really has to become savvy shopping. They have to be able to read product labels, know what is they're looking for, find a reliable brand and stick with it. Also, know what the herb tastes like. If the product doesn't taste like the herb, chances are you're not going to get an affect by it.

I think its (the difference in efficacy) is a very serious problem in the American Market and has been responsible in a large part for the decline in sales in the mass (herbal) market. Because you'd go into a chain pharmacy and see maybe a dozen saw palmetto products and on the low end there's a $2 product and on the high end there's a $22 saw palmetto product. And the poor confused consumer is going to look at those products and make their decision based upon the economics of the situation. And chances are that the cheap, inexpensive, store product or generic brand product is not going to deliver an effective dose. So it truly is a buyer beware situation in the marketplace. There are dozens of marketing companies that have jumped into the fray that produce very poor quality products and they have very little scientific staff or ability. And the tendency in the American market is to buy the cheapest raw material available. And using the example of saw palmetto again, saw palmetto has a very distinctive flavor and fragrance. A friend of mine bought a saw palmetto product he paid about eight dollars for 100 capsules. I asked him to let me taste the product and I chewed on a few capsules and there was no flavor of saw palmetto. The shipwrecked Quakers from the late 17th century in Florida were taken in by the Indians in South Florida and were given a saw palmetto gruel as food and refused to eat it for three or four days. The captain recorded in his journal that it tasted like, 'rotten cheese, steeped in tobacco juice.' So obviously it's a strong flavored material.

So it's tough for the consumer and I think we need definable materials in the marketplace that are of defined identify and defined quality in terms of a minimal amount of active ingredients, active constituents if they're known, or harvested at the right time. There are so many variables involved that it really takes good scientific standards to come up with a good quality product. I had a Russian visitor here last week and she runs a small company and has six people employed. She produces teas; cut and sifted bulk herbs packaged in boxes and all of those products are registered as drugs in Russia. Things like mullein and colds foot, peppermint and chamomile: there all registered for therapeutic use and so with each batch that she manufactures, she has to send a sample to a government quality control lab that certifies the quality. She cannot market that plant material unless she has that certificate of analysis from the government. And at the same time she obtains a certificate of analysis with a private lab, to have something to compare the government quality control material with. So it's very expensive for a manufacturer to bring something as simple as a rose hip tea or a chamomile tea or peppermint tea to the market labeled for therapeutic value. Then those products are available in pharmacies and have a government quality control registration number and a drug registration number printed on the box. And that's the way it's done in most of the world. We need some type of standard and then controls of those standards. This industry has long used the cry of "self policing" so that the industry has the ability to self police itself and weed out the bad apples and give consumers confidence in the quality of the products in the marketplace. But in my opinion self-policing efforts by the industry to this point have been largely ineffective. And probably it will take some type of change in the law for quality products to be the norm in the market rather than the exception.

SLM: Tell me more about United Plant Savers (U.P.S.)

SF: United Plant Savers is a grass roots organization with about 2000 members and was started by Rosemary Gladstar who is a well known herbalist and teacher, and primarily arose out of concern for the impact of wild harvesting on various native plants during the period that the herb industry really exploded in size, in the mid 1990s. At that point we were seeing dramatic declines in wild populations in things like golden seal and Echinacea, American ginseng and other herbs. So U.P.S was created as an organization to make people aware of those potential problems. And to ultimately promote commercial cultivation of ingredients so that we'll have a sustainable supply into the future for future generations.

SLM: Have these efforts been successful?

SF: Yes, certainly in public awareness. Now the market is down substantially, so there aren't as many pressures on wild populations at this point in time; however the supply/demand cycle in the herb business goes up and down in an almost predictable fashion and has always done so. At this point there are large amounts of raw material in warehouses sitting unsold as the market declines, because there was an over supply situation on the raw material side. And when those stores of herb are used up in the next couple of years people will be out buying and digging again. One of the other things that have occurred has been an effort to involve biologists and graduate students working in ecology or biology to gather more information on the plants themselves in their wild habitats. We know very little about population dynamics such as how the populations naturally expand or contract in the wild. We know very little about reproductive biology, and these types of studies are now under way at many universities around the country for the first time. So that's quite an exciting offshoot in the awareness in medicinal plants conservation created by the United Plant Savers.

SLM: So What is new on your horizon?

SF: A second edition of my Eastern Medicinal Plant Field Guide just came out. All photographs this time. And I'm just completing a Western Medicinal Plant Field Guide for the Western United States in the Pederson Field Guide series, co-authored with Christopher Hobbs that will be published early next year. One of the thrusts of my work and my career has been to get people to know the plants themselves. Which is basically the purpose of the Pederson Field Guides of Medicinal Plants. And for people to become more aware of the plants around them as well as how to identify them, and use them or not use them as the case may be. I believe if people are aware of the plants that grow around them they will have a deeper respect for the human-plant relationship and interactions, when it comes to utilization as medicinal plants. One hundred years ago botany was taught in every high school and now it's a rare course at the university level so I think it's incumbent upon the herb consumer to learn about the plant materials that they may ingest in pill form, or tincture or whatever.

Steven Foster is a man of vision. On his website www.stevenfoster.com their mission statement says it all: Our mission is to serve the human-plant connection. Recognizing that plants are vital for food, wellness, medicine, flavor and fragrance, we bring information and imagery on the source plants of human utilization. In doing so we strive to introduce the person to the plant.