The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) recently published a new brochure covering good stewardship harvesting practices for goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) as part of its ongoing educational efforts for the herbal community. The brochure can be downloaded for free from the AHPA website.
 
“AHPA’s development of this brochure and related resources helps ensure that wildcrafters and other stakeholders involved with collecting botanical materials from wild populations have access to information that will enable them to act as good stewards of the land,” said Holly E. Johnson, Ph.D, chief science officer at AHPA. “Following good stewardship practices helps support a sustainable future for medicinal plant species and continued consumer access to beneficial herbs for generations to come.”
 
Johnson and Holly Chittum, MS, AHPA project scientist, managed the initiative, working collaboratively with experts from AHPA’s botanical raw materials and sustainability committees. AHPA has also published good steward harvesting brochures on oshá and saw palmetto.
 
The goldenseal brochure is the latest installation in AHPA’s harvesting brochure series, which is supported by the AHPA Foundation for Education and Research on Botanicals (AHPA-ERB Foundation).
 
The foundation has committed funding toward a multi-year study to improve the understanding of harvest impacts on natural and forest-farmed populations of goldenseal, and to develop recommendations for harvest methods, intensities, and cultivation that support the long-term viability of the species.
 
AHPA’s sustainability committee was formed in 2019 to increase awareness of sustainability within the herbal products industry, create a forum for leadership discussion, provide educational opportunities for herbal companies, and promote sustainable and equitable operations and sourcing practices.