An expanding market for medicinal plants offers diversification to Canadian agriculture.

Cultivation of wild medicinal plants protects biodiversity within the plant community and at the same time provides farmers with new crops that are in great demand.
Besides protecting the wild stocks, cultivation of these plants assures buyers of a constant supply of top quality herbs with consistent chemical concentration.

One of many native wild shrubs that is shows great promise to both growers and researchers is Devil's Club (Oplopanax horridum). That's Devil's club not Devil's claw (Harpagophytum procumbens), which is a totally different plant.

There is no mistaking Devil's club once you have seen it. The very large maple shaped leaves form an umbrella that sit on top of thick, spiny stems that I have seen grow up to ten feet. The flowers bloom in greenish panicles in the spring and mature into flattened pyramids of bright red berries in the late summer.

Native peoples have used the inner bark and roots for arthritis, rheumatism, digestive problems, tuberculosis, colds and for lowering sugar in the blood.

Modern researchers have found that it has significant antibiotic, antiviral, and antifungal properties with no toxic side effects, making it a very promising natural medicine.
This plant is not widely known as a herbal medicine but as Tim Blakley, a buyer for Frontier Herbs says, "It won't be long before it is a hot seller."

This shrub grows wild in British Columbia and in a small area on the west side of the Cascades. It has been over harvested in the north-western States due to good prices and high demand. Our wild stocks cannot sustain continuous commercial harvesting so the time has come to start cultivating Devil's club to assure a supply and to protect it in the wild.