Hello, do have soapnut tree, cinnamosma fragrans or yerba mate? I have Operculicarya decaryi (Elephant Tree) to trade.

Just a little note, in my garden in zone 5a, this plant is very aggressive once it gets going. So you better have plenty of room and expect that it will keep going and going. It needs moisture, does not like to be dried out. Once the underground roots system gets established, it is very hard to control. Just a word to the wise which was not mentioned to me when I first purchased mine from Wayside Gardens years ago. Good luck, it is a neat plant though.

>> In some cases herbs still are the best answer, but those are few and far between when you consider the dangerous drawbacks to the wild form of medicine. That's a rather sweeping statement - what are the dangerous drawbacks to the "wild" form of medicine? >> Also keep in mind that big pharma can get a legal monopoly on a compound derived from an herb, or a group of compounds, the only reason that big pharma isn't testing echinacea or SJW or burdock is that the evidence doesn't point to much useful coming from them compared to drugs already on the market. Sure, someone could patent a compound or the use of a compound - if it is novel. But if an herb (like SJW) has long been used for treating depression, and if the chemical or synergistic group of chemicals that are in SJW were discovered long ago, there is very little newness to warrant a patent. Numerous studies have shown that SJW is comparable to existing antidepressants in efficacy, and generally has a lower side effects profile. I don't think that the pharmaceutical companies are being evil, but the rules are set up so that their first goal is making money. If they could develop a product that was equal to (or even somewhat inferior) to existing products but much more profitable, they absolutely should push that product. Because the function of the corporation is to return as much profit to the owners as possible. The fact that they may need to meet some 'need,' or that the 'solution' is also much more expensive to the consumer is incidental and irrelevant to the driving force of the corporation. Drugs are no different than shampoo - sure, a decent product could be produced at a very low cost. But instead, we see thousands of products competing against each other to fill the same basic function of removing dirt and oils from the hair. There are shampoos pitched specifically to males or females, specifically to particular age groups, different economic groups, different ethnic groups, etc. In the marketplace, demographics and psychological needs are more important than physical needs. >> with medicine we are typically going after one thing that has gone wrong pathologically, trying to activate one receptor, and typically a whole bunch of chemicals grabbed essentially at random (well, they are in the same plant, but from a human physiology standpoint they have nothing in common) In a few cases, that is true, but more often, it is not. If a child has a fever, is holding its ear and screaming in pain, an antibiotic is a good choice to relieve an acute infection. But if the child comes back time after time with ear infections, then maybe the real problem is not antibiotic related - it could be air or water quality, a nutritional deficiency, the bacterial ecology of their sinuses, sanitation, or a variety of other things. The focus on 'the one thing that has gone wrong pathologically' (bacteria) can easily become myopia. Illness generally involves more than one thing that has gone wrong - activating or blocking one gene or receptor may help, but complex systems are rarely optimized with a single such tweak. The 'modern' approach to heart disease has focused very narrowly on cholesterol and the HMG-CoA receptors, and that has yielded some progress. But cholesterol is only one part of the atherogenic process, accounting for 30-40% of risk. Half of men who have their first heart attack have normal cholesterol levels. What about CRP, homocysteine, inflammatory cytokines, reactive oxidation, platelet aggregation, and a host of other factors? What about the complex patterns of gene expression that exist in various diseases, or in health?

May we know where you are located? Are you in South Carolina? If so, perhaps it's still acclimating to the new environment or not. I'm pretty sure you know that Piper methysticum or kava is a tropical plant.