Thursday, May 6, 2010

Chinese Acupuncture Clinic To Participate in USDA Research Project Growing Chinese Herbs in the US

By Mary Cissy Majebe, O.M.D.

High Falls Garden, one of the leading producers of Chinese herbal products grown in the United States has requested assistance from the Chinese Acupuncture Clinic for a United States Department of Agriculture Research project. M. Cissy Majebe will be on the Advisory Board for this 5-year project focusing on Specialty Crop Research.

There is a strong movement to grow Chinese herbal medicines in the United States. As one of the leading private clinics in the United States, the Chinese Acupuncture Clinic will share information and expertise guiding this project towards cultivation of herbal products in the U.S.

Yin Qiao, a basic formula that many of you may use for Wind Heat invasions, has many ingredients that you are already familiar with, as they are plants that grow in our area. Some of the ingredients of Yin Qiao are bo he, jin yin hua and lian qiao. These names may seem foreign and exotic, but when we translate them, we see that they are simply mint, honeysuckle and forsythia, which are familiar to most of us.

It is not that the Chinese have entirely different ecosystems from the U.S., but the Chinese do have a highly developed system of medicine that has developed herbal remedies over a period of thousands of years. It is our hope that by participating in this project, the Chinese Acupuncture Clinic can help to create more opportunities in the United States for the cultivation of medicinal plants.

Due to our new computer systems put in place by Joshua Herr, we are now able to track which herbs are being used the most in our clinic. We are excited about our clinic's participation, as well as Cissy's role on the Advisory Board, for this United States Department of Agriculture project. Hopefully, it can lead to more cultivation and farming of Chinese medicinals in the United States.