The Story of a Weed that Could Make Californians Rich!

How Short-Sighted Profit-Seeking Humans Spent Million to Eradicate a Treasure!

This is a good real story about how the humans’ pursuit of short-term gains and personal profits made them unwise and unhealthy.

It was 1930s and the last thing the depression era needed was an invasive plant that took over farmland and pastures. The Klamath weed, or goatweed, a native of Europe, first appeared in the United States in 1793 near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. By 1900 it had reached California in the vicinity of the Klamath River, hence the name locally given to it. By 1929 it had occupied about 100,000 acres of rangeland, and by 1952 it had invaded some two and one half million acres. Livestock consuming “the weed” became sore-mouthed and lost weight so the government and chemical (pesticide) companies took action! Tons of herbicides like 2,4-D (a component of the notorious chemical weapon called “Agent Orange”)¹ were used and millions of dollars were spent to control the weed with little success. Local rivers and soil were contaminated with the harmful chemicals that accumulate in animals and humans and can cause neuroendocrine disruptions (More details in my article Do Pesticides Impact Fertility, Masculinity and Miscarriages? An Overview of Scientific Literature).

The “invasion” problem was finally solved when species of beetles (native to southern France) were imported in 1944, that mainly fed upon the “weed.”

In her 1962 book Silent Spring, Rachel Carson discusses Klamath weed as an example of how poorly researched chemical approaches to pest control can have unintended negative consequences. But today, we know the yellow-flowered perennial Americans called Klamath “weed” was called St. Johns Wort (Hypericum perforatum) in Europe with amazing medicinal and therapeutic properties!

The herb St. John’s Wort (SJW) now sells for $20 a pound and in concentrated pill for $100 a pound! This is the same plant that Californians spent millions of dollars to (unsuccessfully) eradicate by contaminating their precious soil and water resources!

The herb, when organic and untreated, is used for relief of menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes, treatment of insomnia, depression, nerve pain (neuralgia) and wounds.

This is a summary of the precious herb’s properties from Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects:

The use of this species as an herbal remedy to treat a variety of internal and external ailments dates back to the time of the ancient Greeks. Since then, it has remained a popular treatment for anxiety, depression, cuts, and burns. Recent research suggests the effectiveness of this herb in treating other ailments, including cancer, inflammation-related disorders, and bacterial and viral diseases, and as an antioxidant and neuroprotective agent. Pharmaceutical companies, particularly in Europe, prepare standard formulations of this herb that are taken by millions of people. Worldwide annual sales of products made from SJW presently exceed several billion dollars. Further, SJW produces dozens of biologically active substances, although two—hypericin (a naphthodianthrone) and hyperforin (a lipophilic phloroglucinol)—have the greatest medical activity. Other compounds, including the flavonoids rutin, quercetin, and kaempferol, also appear to have medical activity. H. perforatum has been intensively studied on isolated tissue samples, using animal models and through human clinical trials. The effectiveness of SJW as an antidepression agent is particularly well studied, and the underlying mechanisms are well understood. SJW preparations have relatively few adverse effects when taken alone at the recommended dosages.

The morale of this story: The WISE and KNOWING humans (Homo sapiens) find ways to symbiotically and regeneratively benefit from nature without destroying it, while the short-sighted ECONOMIC humans (Homo economicus as I refer to them in my books) find ways to create an economy (of pesticides, etc.) by fighting nature to maximize short-term monetization.

1. 2,4-D2 (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, a component of the notorious chemical weapon called “Agent Orange”) are chemically stable and strongly lipophilic (fat loving) so their residues (not degraded or excreted from the body) tend to “bioaccumulate” in lipid-rich tissues in the body such as in the brain and our nervous system (the fatty myelin sheet covering neurons). These compounds have also received the most attention because of their persistence in the environment, because of their ability to concentrate up the food web, and their continuous detection in the food supply and drinking water. They also seem to accumulate in organisms and then can cause endocrine (hormonal) disruption at environmentally realistic exposure levels (read on to find out more about endocrine disruptors).