HEALTHY WELSH INTEREST IN MEDICINAL HERB CROPS
HEALTHY WELSH INTEREST IN MEDICINAL HERB CROPS
Ten farms surrounding
a tiny Welsh village once
famed for its herbalist
physicians have
started commercial
herb production.
Robert Davies meets
the new co-ops chairman
DAVID Munro, whose family runs the 400-year-old Plough Inn at Myddfai, Carmarthenshire, believes it was almost inevitable that local farmers looking for ways of diversifying would turn to growing medicinal plants.
From before the Norman Conquest, people travelled long distances to consult the Physicians of Myddfai, who had learned to formulate effective natural remedies using the profusion of plants growing in the area.
Local doctors could use just the right quantity of deadly poisonous hemlock to exploit its narcotic properties as a crude anaesthetic. And they used it as an anaesthetic when treating serious wounds or even for limb amputations.
They did not know that meadowsweet contains salicylic acid, which we know as aspirin, but they were full aware of it analgesic properties. The digitalis they extracted from the humble foxglove to treat heart conditions was until recently a mainstream pharmaceutical drug.
Such was the fame of the physicians that in the 13th century they were ordered to write down their formulations in a massive book that is lodged in the British Museum. Accounts of their achievements, written in ancient Welsh by many who visited the area, are contained in the Red Book of Hergest in Oxford Universitys Bodleian Library.
But historical facts about Myddfais "men of knowledge" are interwoven with legend and folklore. It is claimed that a poor widows son married a beautiful water sprite, who emerged from Lyn y-Fan Fach, a tiny lake close to the village. She bore him three sons before returning to her family beneath the water.
However, she reappeared several times to her sons, especially the eldest Rhiwallon, whom legend says "she took to a little wood set in a furrowed valley where grew all manner of plants and herbs".
There she taught him in the subtle arts of herbal medicine, and the reputation of parish of Llanfihangel ym Myddfai as a centre for healing was born. The lady of the lake may have been a myth, but the work of the herbalists was very real, and a recent botanical survey of local hedgerows and fields shows the abundance of plant species to which they had access.
It is fitting that Llwyn Meredydd Fedeg, which Welsh folklore claims was the farm owned by one of the lake fairys sons, is one of the 10 where the co-op is planting herbs.
The project was launched at an informal meeting in the village pub. A feasibility study funded by the Brecon Beacons National Park indicated that local soils and climate were ideal, and that there was a market for pharmaceutical herbs. But establishment costs would be high, and spare money was one thing interested farmers did not have.
David Munro, who until five years ago practised law in South Africa, started trawling grant awarding agencies for the £40,000 needed to get the first 10ha (25 acres) planted, and then for a similar amount to build a drying plant.
Phase one has been awarded a 50% grant by the Antur Cwm Taf Teifi leader group. Members are still awaiting responses from other bodies and there are high hopes of obtaining EU funding.
After consultation with the National Herb Centre at Banbury, and the National Botanic Garden in west Wales, the species chosen for initial plantings are parsley, dill, peppermint, sage, lemon balm, catnip, arnica, black cohosh and yellow gerdin. Some are being planted as seedling plugs, but others can be grown from seed.
"It is all very new and we are feeling our way in consultation with the National Herb Centre," says Mr Munro. "We still need some specialist equipment, but we certainly do not lack interest and enthusiasm. On farms where planting has started whole families have become involved.
"Livestock farmers have had a very difficult time and need to diversify to survive. We think we could market much more than we will produce from the 10ha already committed to the project, but more farmers will join the co-op once we have results to dispel the understandable scepticism felt by some."
The first harvest will be of parsley and dill in September. Other species will come on stream next spring. Some will be sold through the National Botanic Garden in packaging that identifies the link with the ancient Physicians of Myddfai.
There are no plans yet to grow monkshood for the potentially lethal muscle relaxant aconite it contains, or celandine to be mixed with houseleek and rose petals to treat mistiness of the eyes, or lungwort for pulmonary troubles.
But if there is a demand for these, or stitchwort to cure dagger wounds – or even cuckoo pint as an aid to success in love – the co-op will consider planting them.