Post by Marches on Jun 6, 2017 16:45:46 GMT -5
Rhodiola is a medicinal herb, what's come to be called an adaptogen and is along the lines of say Ginseng. It's thought to have a number of benefits and there's been a lot of studies into it.
The root is made into tea or put in powdered form into capsules.
Anyway it comes from pretty cold areas of the Northern hemisphere. It's associated with Siberia a lot, probably because the Russians were the first to really study it but it grows as far as Britain where it grows on high hills as one of the relic plants here from the last ice age.
So it's a pretty tough plant and you'd probably expect it to grow slowly but I have it in my garden and it actually grows quite fast.
The thing is with its therapeutic properties is that apparently the best stuff comes from Russia. I haven't found any actual studies or proof into this but it seems to be a often repeated claim that goes about.
A part of me can believe this - a plant of it in Siberia is going to be under more cold stress than say in Britain where it doesn't get the same extreme conditions. And soil differences too could play a part or even perhaps genetic differences between those plants in Siberia and those in the rest of the world leading to more of the active compounds being created.
I'm sceptical of it though, I doubt all plants outside of Russia are inert.
I've also seen people mention harvesting their own plants (and these people weren't living in Russia) and claiming they work which also leads me to believe the claim might be bogus.
I think it'd be an interesting thing to study, whether there is any difference between Rhodiola from there and Rhodiola from the rest of the Northern hemisphere and if there is whether through growing in the right places or conditions or selecting breeding lines the active stuff could be produced in many Northern countries. In Russia apparently it's mostly harvested from the wild which is putting the plant in danger there. It's not much harvested elsewhere although I have heard of a farm growing it in Alaska.
How one would go about actually studying it is a different matter though apart from just subjectively trying it. Testing for the active compounds (rosavins and salidrosides) probably isn't something that can be done at home.
The root is made into tea or put in powdered form into capsules.
Anyway it comes from pretty cold areas of the Northern hemisphere. It's associated with Siberia a lot, probably because the Russians were the first to really study it but it grows as far as Britain where it grows on high hills as one of the relic plants here from the last ice age.
So it's a pretty tough plant and you'd probably expect it to grow slowly but I have it in my garden and it actually grows quite fast.
The thing is with its therapeutic properties is that apparently the best stuff comes from Russia. I haven't found any actual studies or proof into this but it seems to be a often repeated claim that goes about.
A part of me can believe this - a plant of it in Siberia is going to be under more cold stress than say in Britain where it doesn't get the same extreme conditions. And soil differences too could play a part or even perhaps genetic differences between those plants in Siberia and those in the rest of the world leading to more of the active compounds being created.
I'm sceptical of it though, I doubt all plants outside of Russia are inert.
I've also seen people mention harvesting their own plants (and these people weren't living in Russia) and claiming they work which also leads me to believe the claim might be bogus.
I think it'd be an interesting thing to study, whether there is any difference between Rhodiola from there and Rhodiola from the rest of the Northern hemisphere and if there is whether through growing in the right places or conditions or selecting breeding lines the active stuff could be produced in many Northern countries. In Russia apparently it's mostly harvested from the wild which is putting the plant in danger there. It's not much harvested elsewhere although I have heard of a farm growing it in Alaska.
How one would go about actually studying it is a different matter though apart from just subjectively trying it. Testing for the active compounds (rosavins and salidrosides) probably isn't something that can be done at home.