Plant Profiles

Devil's-club grows in the rain forests of the Pacific Coast, the interior of British Columbia, and the Rocky Mountains, as well as in mountainous regions in the northwestern U.S. There are also a few isolated patches north of Lake Superior.

Many First Nations on the west coast prize devil's-club as one of the most medically and spiritually significant plants of the region. Among the various peoples of the Pacific Northwest, more than 30 different medical uses of devil's-club have been documented. The most common traditional uses, however, are to treat infections, including tuberculosis, and for arthritis, and gastro-intestinal complaints.

Settlers, on the whole, were not quick to adopt devil's-club. With the resurgence of interest in herbal medicine in the late 1900s, however, herbalists began prescribing devil's-club for many of its traditional uses. Also, devil's-club root began to be collected and marketed for much the same purposes as its distant relative ginseng - uses unsupported by either traditional knowledge or clinical research.

There has been little solid research done to date on devil's-club. However, researchers have identified several chemical compounds with antibacterial properties.  Some of these are effective against the bacteria that cause tuberculosis, a disease that is becoming resistant to existing antibiotics. Investigation of devil's-club as a possible control for some of the side-effects of diabetes also continues.

Gardeners either love this shrub or hate it. Its fans admire its height (3 to 5 metres), large beautiful leaves, and red fruit. Detractors complain about its extremely nasty spines and habit of spreading. Given its size and habits, it is usually grown only in the more wild and damp areas of large gardens.

Devil's-club is gathered exclusively from the wild. As demand increases, so does concern that the plant is being over-harvested - a situation compounded by current commercial demand for the root. Harvesting the inner bark of the stems, the part most commonly used in traditional First Nations' medicines, causes less damage to the plant.

Canada has signed the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which recognizes the rights of indigenous people to a share of the financial benefits from commercialization of traditional knowledge. Devil’s-club is now being sold commercially for many of its traditional uses and so is likely to become a test case for how the convention will be applied in Canada. For more information, visit http://www.herbalgram.org/
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