Ginseng has been harvested in the US since the founding fathers' time:

"American ginseng, Panax guinquefolius, is considered a valuable forest resource in Pennsylvania.

Historically it has been found, and harvested, in nearly every county in the commonwealth. George Washington wrote, in 1784, of meeting ginseng collectors on their way to Philadelphia to market their product. Washington was likely crossing the Laurel Highlands when the incident occurred.

Another example, from July 1783, is provided by the Bavarian scholar Johann Schöpf who, while traveling through Laurel Hill (somewhere near the border of and Fayette counties), noted the following:

A man met us who was taking to some five hundred pounds of ginseng-roots on two horses. He hoped to make a great profit because throughout the [Revolutionary] war little of this article was gathered, and it was now demanded in quantity by certain Frenchmen. The hunters collect it incidentally in their wanderings; in these mountains the plant is still common, but in the lower parts it has pretty well disappeared...Much is brought into Fort Pitt Pittsburgh. Industrious people who went out for the purpose have gathered as much as sixty pounds in one day.”

Today “sang,” as the plant is known, is still gathered in Pennsylvania and marketed abroad. It is estimated that seven million individual plants may have been harvested since 1989. Harvesting certainly is taking place faster than replacement. Altering forest habitat through harvesting of woody species may also have reduced available environment for ginseng growth."

Harvey Nichols department store in London saw sales rise after they followed the principles of feng shui and altered their escalators:

"SALES have shot up at a top department store after a Feng Shui expert told them to reverse their escalators.

Harvey Nichols turned to Eastern philosophy after a slow time at the tills in January.

Hairdresser Charlie Miller - who runs a salon in the swish Edinburgh store - suggested changing the directions the escalators travel.

He's an expert in Feng Shui, the belief that the layout of a room as 'energy' can have an emotional impact on people.

A store insider said: 'The managers here have a lot of respect for Charlie and, when he suggested switching the escalators, they agreed to give it a go.

'It's the cheapest sort of refurbishment you can make and, after a slow customer response during the January sales, they were keen to do something.'

Feng Shui expert Chi Wing said: 'If escalators are facing the door, that is bad - because the flow of the energy will be too quick.

'If they are facing a window, that is bad too - because the energy will escape."

Chrysanthemum tea may have some cancer fighting properties:

"Chrysanthemum tea, a popular brew among Chinese, has been found to contain a cancer-fighting property, researchers said Tuesday.

The chrysanthemum flower used to brew the drink has an antioxidant, called a flavonoid, which attacks cancer cells, the team's leader told The Straits Times.

The tea has been known for its cooling properties in traditional Chinese medicine.

Assistant Professor Shen Han Ming said his group studied the effects of several flavonoids in a particular species grown in Hangzhou, China.

They found that one, luteolin, binds the cancer cells and kills them, the newspaper account said.

"So far, the team has studied the effects of the flavonoid on colon, breast and cervical cancers and has found it works on all three," the report said."

DAAN carries a couple of products that contain chysanthemum. Xia Sang Ju natural herbal beverage is used to fight the flu or to cool off internal heat. Mulberry leaf and chrysanthemum extract fights colds and sore throats.

An herb related to Chinese sage may hold promise for treating alcoholism:

"The Chinese sage, whose scientific name is Salvia Miltiorrhiza, is one of the many herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine.

It has been used for centuries in China to treat blood diseases, heart disorders, haemorrhages, menstrual problems, edema (swelling, usually of the joints) and insomnia.

If demonstrated in humans, the efficacy of the Chinese sage would provide science with a welcome tool against alcoholism, a biochemical disorder which has proved very difficult to treat by chemical means.

According to Colombo, the Chinese sage slows the appearance of alcoholism traits in mice whose genetic make-up has been tweaked to make them more susceptible to drink.

"It appears to be completely devoid of side effects, so far at least," he said.

The Italian scientist thinks the herb may be able to turn alcoholics into moderate drinkers, a goal that has so far proved elusive."

An interesting story about a woman who studied traditional herbal remedies and what she learned:

"Still, much of modern medicine is an attempt to copy nature, she noted. Willow bark - the precursor of aspirin - is one example. Pharmaceutical companies made a synthetic copy of the salicin in the bark, calling it acetylsalic acid, or aspirin.

"You can't put a patent on something God made, so they photocopy it," said Evans.

Yet willow bark has thousands of components that aspirin does not, making it far more complex and useful for more ailments than aspirin. It even heals erosions of the stomach lining where aspirin may cause them, she noted.

"Herbs are very complex. Pharmaceuticals are for the most part one main ingredient," she explained.

That's not to say that modern medicine doesn't have its place, said Evans. "Pharmaceutical medicine is wonderful. It saved my father's life. But it is new," said Evans. "The fourth leading cause of death in the United States is due to correctly prescribed medicines," she said, citing the mainstream Journal of the American Medical Association. "It's a testimony to the fact that modern medicine is new." "Herbs have been beside us the whole time - that long timeline. There's a lot of traditional wisdom we've learned over a long time about these plants. The herbal knowledge we have has been passed down for hundreds of thousands of years. Every time I make a tea I am connecting with that."

Many plants are believed to be natural aphrodisiacs:

" Kilham focuses on 10 hot plants (see box) he says can restore desire, function and response, though other herbalists have their own favorites.
He met with traditional herbalists and medical researchers in such countries as Malaysia, Africa, Russia and China.

Some of the plant substances he touts have been subjected to scientific scrutiny, but he says proof for most lies in their safe use by "millions" of people over centuries.
That view is echoed by Mark Blumenthal, executive director and founder of the American Botanical Council in Austin, Texas, an independent nonprofit organization that researches and provides education about herbs.

"The overall bottom line is there is a growing body of both scientific research on animal and human level that continue to support the traditional, historical and empirical data that shows some of the herbal formulas can be useful," Blumenthal says."

Deer love wild ginseng! So much so that they they are threatening the supply:

" An abundant deer population with a hearty appetite for American ginseng threatens the survival of the widely harvested medicinal plant, a study by West Virginia University biologists suggests.

Ginseng, a wild herb that inhabits eastern deciduous forests from Maine to Georgia, faces extinction within 100 years if foraging by deer continues at its current rate, James McGraw and Mary Ann Furedi report in Friday’s (Feb. 11) issue of Science, the flagship journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

“Without more effective deer population control, ginseng and many other valuable understory herbs are likely to become extinct in the coming century,” the authors conclude.

American ginseng, or Panax quinquefolius, grows under forest canopies in well-drained, nutrient-rich soils. The plant consists of green leaves, red berries and gnarly roots whose touted medicinal qualities range from improving mental performance to being a cure-all.

Asians have sworn by these medicinal qualities for centuries, and the high demand for ginseng in that corner of the world has made it a cash crop in Appalachia. More than 10,000 West Virginians go into the woods each fall to find ginseng to sell; for some, the harvests provide an important income supplement. In 2002, more than 6,400 pounds of ginseng with a value exceeding $2 million were harvested in West Virginia, according to the state Division of Forestry’s Web site."

Interesting article about Chinese new year in Hong Kong and what people are saying the year may hold (includes a nice slideshow of New Years festivities):

"Hong Kong is preparing to celebrate the lunar new year and the start of the Year of the Rooster.

Geomancers and feng shui masters are much in demand to predict the economic, political and personal fortunes of the year ahead.

The Chinese belief in fate and fortune telling is deep rooted.

It has been practised for thousands of years and in modern-day Hong Kong, it is still a serious business.

A local bank, the CLSA, conducts an annual feng shui economic survey.

In the Year of the Rooster, it says gold is always predominant and it predicts good news for the gold market."

Being at home for Chinese New Year is very important, with the result that the transportation system in China is overtaxed:

"China's transport system was stretched to the limit while goods flew off shop shelves in a last-minute rush as 1.3 billion people -- a fifth of humanity -- prepared to celebrate Lunar New Year.

The festival officially begins Wednesday but in practice kicks off Tuesday with debts paid, homes swept, unfinished business completed and families coming together to mark the Year of the Rooster -- year 4702 on the Chinese calendar.

Authorities laid on extra planes, trains and buses to cope with what constitutes the biggest movement of people on Earth.

"We really want to hurry up and go home because we have been away from our families for one year," said Lin Yanxue, a 20-year-old factory worker leaving Beijing for her home in Shandong province.

Lin, like millions of others packing bus and train stations, only manages one visit home each year which traditionally happens during the Chinese, or Lunar, New Year.

Up to 1.97 billion trips are expected to be made during the Lunar travel period from January 25 to February 28 -- more this year than ever before."

A nice artcle on some popular supplements and recent research concerning their benefits, among them, Gingko Biloba:

"This herb boosts memory and alleviates circulatory problems. Active compounds are extracted from the fan-shaped leaves of the ginkgo biloba tree.

How it Works: Ginkgo regulates blood vessel health, increasing blood flow to the brain. Its antioxidant compounds scavenge free radicals and proteins that can accumulate in memory-robbing dementias. Ginkgo also inhibits blood clots that could block vessels.

The Lowdown: Ginkgo may improve mental performance in healthy individuals as well as in those with established dementia. In one study, healthy volunteers taking ginkgo combined with Panax ginseng enjoyed sharper cognitive function and less mental fatigue than volunteers who did not take the supplements. They also had temporary improvement in short- and long-term memory.

Expert Testimony: "Ginkgo may slow down the dementia illnesses," says Edelberg. "However, if your memory is already pretty sharp, don't expect significant improvement."

Did You Know? Be thankful that ginkgo is available in pill form; for millennia, people resorted to brewing tea from the notoriously stinky leaves.

Suggested Dose: Take 60 mg standardized extract of ginkgo biloba (GBE) twice daily."

DAAN has a large selection of ginseng, including wild ginseng from Wisconsin. Here's some background on the types of ginseng we carry. As always, if you have any questions, we're here to help.

Dr. Yen of DAAN has created a special formula to strengthen eyesight using carefully selected herbs. Try it, you'll see the difference.

An increasing number of health insurance companies are covering alternative treatments, including acupuncture and Chinese herbs:

"Used by more than a third of Americans, alternative medicine is slowly becoming accepted by the healthcare establishment.

A growing number of health insurers are recognizing this $30 billion industry, mostly by offering discounts for acupuncture, nutritional counseling, mind-body practices like biofeedback and other complementary or alternative forms of care."

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""Complementary medicine is going mainstream quickly,'' says Santiago Leon, a Miami health insurance broker who has studied the field extensively. ``Part of the impulse is therapeutic. Part of it is economic.''

Studies show some treatments -- particularly acupuncture and some mind-body therapies -- work as well or better than traditional medicine, and they are frequently much cheaper."

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is being promoted as a world cultural heritage, which could help it survive the modern age:

"The State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine is working to submit a bid to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to list traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as world intangible cultural heritage.

The effort is partly aimed at easing TCM doctors' worries. They are seeing the growth of their ancient practice become stymied.

"Intangible cultural heritage" is defined by the UNESCO as the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and skills that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage.

"If it turns into a successful bid, the world cultural heritage status of TCM will help ensure the preservation of its original philosophical and physiological principles," said Lu Jiage, who manages a TCM clinic in Beijing he inherited from his father."