Agronomy Faculty Member Involved in Medicinal Plant Research

Medicinal plants and functional foods (MP/FF) represent a growth industry that may have potential in Alabama. A multidisciplinary team of Auburn, Tuskegee and Alabama A&M university scientists, including one faculty member in the CoAg Department of Agronomy and Soils, will be addressing this issue through a $100,000 Alabama Agricultural Land Grant Alliance grant.

The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 provides for the marketing of herbal medicines as dietary supplements and has led to growing demand for these products. Cultivation of high-value medicinal plants and functional foods could enable low resource farmers and landholders to supplement their income and increase the economic value of land. Many MP/FF are forest understory species and could add value to wooded acreage without compromising other uses, such as forestry and hunting. Many medicinal plant species are considered endangered or threatened, and their cultivation would help to protect populations in the wild.

Although extensive research is conducted on the biochemical and pharmaceutical properties of these plants, little information is available as to what varieties a farmer should grow in order to gain the most medicinal value for their crop, or information specific to Alabama on how to grow the crops. Information on use of MP/FF for veterinary purposes is also lacking.

The AALGA grant will serve as seed money to establish a research program on MP/FF that will address such issues as cultural aspects, varietal selection and breeding of the plants, biochemistry, pharmacognosy (the science of using plants and other natural products as drugs), economics and marketing and may also include food science and human and animal health. However, it starts with selecting promising species, testing germplasm and developing assays that can be used to assess the effects of genotypes, plant parts and/or cultural practices on desired activity.

Species will be selected for testing based upon information on adaptation and pharmacological potential and a diverse germplasm acquired for screening. At the same time, the Alabama team will develop assays for biological activity. Promising lines will be assessed for yield and concentration of biologically active ingredients. The initial outcome will be the identification of medicinal species and varieties that grow well in Alabama.

For Auburn's part, Dennis Shannon, professor of agronomy and soils, will be doing the agronomic research while Barbara Kemppainen, a professor in the AU College of Veterinary Medicine, will analyze the plants for medicinally active ingredients. Among the initial plants to be screened are oyster mushrooms and 19 jujube varieties, all of which are grown at Alabama A&M. In addition, the project will develop assays to screen varieties of three species that Shannon plans to grow—turmeric, Spanish sage and Astragalus root. The most productive genotypes will be selected for further research to develop appropriate cultural practices for optimum production of active ingredients.

Shannon, in collaboration with Fort Valley State University in Georgia, hopes to conduct a field screening of samples of these three species and also plans to develop agronomic practices for the cultivation of Scutellaria, a plant also known as skullcap that is used in Chinese medicine.

In addition to providing the oyster mushrooms and jujube varieties, Alabama A&M University will quantify the medicinal components of shiitake mushrooms and conduct training in Alabama's Black Belt region on production of shiitake and oyster mushrooms. Scientists there also will determine the economics of developing a drying, encapsulation and bottling process for dried products for the health food market.

Tuskegee University will do research on production methods of castor bean and test the efficacy of castor oil in treating internal parasites in goats.

Alabama farmers will benefit from this research by learning which species and varieties of MP/FF to grow, how to grow them and how to process them for the retail market. The ultimate goal is to have integrated, multidisciplinary research in support of outreach, training and marketing of MP/FFs grown and processed in the Black Belt and elsewhere in Alabama and marketed nationally.

In addition to the $100,000 in funding from AALGA, the team is seeking additional funding for the project.

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