Pharmacognosy
(Noun) from Greek pharmakon (drug, medicine) + gnosis (knowledge): the identification, isolation, characterization, and evaluation of bioactive compounds from natural sources for their pharmacological activities.
Dear Rosies,
First, please accept my apologies that Honor Everyday Balm has gone out-of-stock- you’re using faster than we predicted. Your preorders will ship out the day the new batch arrives, within the next ten days. In the meantime, Discovery Size Honor minis are available if you’ve run out.
My letter this week is a bit late, as I am just landing from an information-rich research trip in South Asia where we were getting intimate with several new plants that hold high promise for our work together. It’s a true joy to visit the growers and to be the beneficiary of their depth of knowledge. Many growers are in families that have been doing this work for hundreds of years!
In Sri Lanka, we visited with organic Blue Lotus farmers. Blue Lotus is the national flower of the country. It grows in the water, with its roots deep in the mud [thus the saying, “no mud, no lotus” as an encouragement to keep going in hard times- the mud is necessary for the blooming]. Throughout India and Egypt and Persia and China, Blue Lotus, also known as Utpala or Nymphea Cerulea, is revered for its light intoxicating scent, its skin soothing properties, its sexuality enhancing properties and its mild psychoactive effects, especially for relaxation, anxiety and sleep. It’s even one of the symbols of Bhumi, or mother earth herself, in the Indian Vedas.
Today, commercial volumes of organic Blue Lotus are cultivated in rice paddies, and dried for export. When we met with the main grower, his wife, daughters and mother in law all came to say hello, brought us bouquets of fresh blooms, and served us the Blue Lotus tea, and we walked out to see the flowers growing in these low ponds, as far as the eye could see.
It’s a long process from pre-research, to speaking with experts, to this kind of farm visit, to the scientific efficacy research, the blending with other appropriate herbs and bases, the development of sample formulations, and the many rounds of testing before a new product gets to you, with the kind of super effective signature blends you’ve come to know and love from Rosebud Woman. Each of our flagship products have gone through this kind of process!
The Gnosis part of pharmacognosy, or true knowing, is more than a name or some facts or some chemical information. It takes a much deeper observation of a plant or thing in its environment over time to say that you know it. You make the plant a subject, and get curious about it, and eventually it reveals itself to you. We are fortunate to live in a time when we can lean into the experienced ones, who have done that work for all of us, and kept these ancient plant traditions alive.
As you know, many pharmaceuticals have been developed by isolating active compounds from plants (think the chemo drug Taxol, which is pacific yew, or birth control from yams), but this concentration often contributes to some the harsh side effects from pharmies.
The whole plant, or whole plant extracts, are different. Plants contain numerous compounds that may act synergistically to produce beneficial effects or mitigate adverse reactions. When isolating a single active compound, these synergistic effects may be lost, altering the overall pharmacological profile of the drug and potentially increasing the likelihood of side effects. The purified active compound may interact differently with the body than it does in the context of the whole plant.
So for this week, I have an invitation: Join me in pharmacognosis. Just pick one plant from your own backyard that draws you in and find out what it’s all about. Observe it, sketch it, smell it, touch it, ask it questions, google it. Does it have medicine for you?
We trust the earth to provide, we trust in the incredible abundance of food and medicines that are found everywhere, and we are grateful for the global healing community that devotes their lives and livelihood to helping people feel better, sustainably and fairly.
All love,
XO
Christine Marie Mason
Founder, Rosebud Woman
Host The Rose Woman Podcast on Love and Liberation
