Ginkgo biloba, St. John’s Wort, mayaple, saw palmetto, and ginseng are part of an $8 billion industry in the United States. They are some of the many plants and fungi , or “non-timber forest products” (NTFPs), harvested from within and on the edges of forests.
You can find forest-harvested edible products and herbal medicines at health food stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, or mass merchandisers. Local craft shops or weekend fairs often have specialty wood products and edible forest products. A bouquet of fresh or dried flowers purchased via the Internet may include forest-harvested botanicals.
While a lot is known about individual plants, non-timber forest products as a research area offers many opportunities. For example, how should forests be managed to benefit diverse non-timber products? There are different management issues with different products. In the social sciences, there are questions of public education and meeting consumer interests and needs.
NTFPs are classified into four product lines: edibles, specialty wood products, floral greens, and medicinal and dietary supplements.
Edible products include mushrooms, berries, nuts, saps and resins, ferns, tubers, and bulbs. Local and regional economies are improved by the marketing of forest-harvested huckleberries (Pacific Northwest), ramps (Appalachia), and maple syrup (the northeast). Fiddlehead ferns, wild ramps, and wild harvested watercress are a few herbaceous plants that may appear in fine restaurants.
Specialty wood products include handicrafts, carvings and turnings, utensils, and containers. Furniture, tools, and musical instruments can be made from branches, twigs, and vines without cutting down trees.
Many forest plants are used in decorative arrangements with flowers and as the main component of dried ornaments.
Herbal medicines have a long history and may be the highest-value segment of the NTFP industry. Plants that have been tested for safety and efficacy and meet strict U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards are marketed as medicines or drugs. Some plant products that do not meet FDA standards are marketed as dietary supplements. These products are legally considered food items and product labels can make no claims about their medical benefits.
NTFPs have a history longer than many timber-based products but their contributions have not been recognized until recently. Native Americans used forest plants for tools, food, housing, household products, containers, medicine, and religious ceremonies. Roots were used to sew together birch bark for canoes, which were then sealed with resin from balsam fir. The first European settlers brought essential items, but when their stores were depleted, they looked to local resources and learned from Native Americans that the forests have value well beyond that of timber.
That knowledge is the foundation of the U.S. herbal medicinal industry today. One of the first exports from the New World to Europe was sassafras, discovered by an Englishman in 1603 on Martha’s Vineyard. It was used as an herbal medicine until the mid-1900s, when it was shown to have carcinogenic properties.
The discovery of synthetic materials that could be substituted for natural products changed the NTFP industry in the early 1900s. There was an almost total rejection of medicinal plants and a shift to synthetic drugs. The Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the 1912 Sherley Amendment helped eliminate mislabeling and adulteration of herbal medicines. The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 required that drugs be proven safe before entering interstate commerce. The Drug Amendments of 1962 required that drugs be proven safe and effective, which began to restore confidence in NTFPs.
Also during the 1900s, medical research findings helped increase the demand for NTFPs. The effectiveness of taxol in the treatment of some cancers greatly increased demand for this drug and Pacific yew, the tree from which it was initially derived. Taxol was approved by the FDA in 1994 for the treatment of ovarian cancer and some forms of breast cancer. Interest in herbal medicine and botanical medicines was renewed.
The worldwide market for herbal medicines is expected to reach $14 billion this year. For the industry to flourish, environmental and social issues must be incorporated into management and marketing strategies. Much work is needed on how to manage forest resources for NTFPs. Much more is known about medicinal and dietary supplements than the other product lines. Information on specialty wood products and edible forest products is particularly lacking. Research is needed to determine consumer characteristics. By understanding these traits, marketing strategies can be developed that address consumers’ interests and needs.
For more information, see Tom Hammett’s homepage and the non-timber forest products information page.
