BECKLEY — What do ambergris (whale vomit), castoreum (scent sacs of the North American beaver), pine resin and tomato leaf have in common?

They are all aromatics used in perfume formulations. And if Dr. Mario Morales has anything to say about it, wild ginger may be added to the plant source list for a leading perfumery, to the benefit of West Virginia growers.

The glass on the door inside Mountain State University’s John W. Eye Center reads “Medicinal Botanicals Research Program,” and what happens behind it could be the saving grace of local farmers. Along with Dean Myles, program coordinator, Morales researches new sustainable crops, which are able to grow in the temperate mountain climate and have a wide variety of marketable attributes.

The result of a USDA-governed, federally funded congressional appropriation in collaboration with MSU, the program is reaching out to farmers to uncover the potential of native plants for everything from perfumes to tomorrow’s drugs for disease management. The threshold for new discoveries in wild, wonderful West Virginia is as high as the distinguishing hills.

“There are a lot of things out there,” says Morales, author of reference manuals on medicinal botanicals, a Ph.D. agronomist from Purdue University, and now director of the Medicinal Botanicals Program.

Wild ginger root is just one of the items under the program’s enterprising microscope. Morales holds a sample just returned from the lab. The bunched, dried rhizomes resemble tumbleweed.

“Smell it,” he instructs.

A fragrant, woody and pleasant scent returns.

“I think this plant has the potential to be used as an essential oil,” he says. “I asked a farmer to collect it.”

Morales sent the aromatic roots to a colleague at Rutgers University who extracted and analyzed the plant’s essential oil. The sample showed a high yield of oil at 3 percent.

“Most aromatic plants yield only 1 to 11/2 percent,” explains Morales, illustrating what he and Myles look for in a potential banner crop — better. 

Better yield, better flavor, better opportunity.

Better is marketable and will make “West Virginia Grown” a label that gets noticed by potential buyers. Not only do farmers get new crop ideas, but they also get their marketing edge and grant know-how defined along with it when Morales and Myles get involved.

“We will collect more samples, analyze them and send to different perfume companies,” Morales says of the wild ginger. “If something like this develops, it would be a crop farmers in West Virginia could produce. But developing a new crop takes time and a lot of effort.”

Morales and Myles don’t rest on any one laurel, mountain or other variety. They are ever scouring the local landscape, finding plants and imagining a purpose for them, charting a simple green stalk’s industry aptitude and market capacity.

Sometimes, it is a farmer’s ingenuity that first forms the basis for introductions between the green-thumbed and white-collared. A Nicholas County farmer approached Morales with an idea: If mushroom spores are put on biodegradable oil to lubricate the blade of a chain saw when cutting logs and branches, landowners could, in theory, eliminate the petroleum-based oil typically used for lubrication. Cutters could be a cut above, sparing the environment while inoculating the wood with spores and eventually yielding a crop on the leftover wood. Oyster and shiitake varieties of mushrooms could be sold to fine restaurants and improve the razor-thin or upside-down profit margin of timbering efforts and put chucked wood to good use.

Morales assisted the farmer in securing a $15,000 grant, allowing him to develop his idea.

“It diversifies the small farm and, at the same time, increases income potential for the farmer,” Myles says of the project’s purpose and opportunity in the case of the Nicholas County farmer and, hopefully, for many others.

The Medicinal Botanical Program reaches out to communities of farmers and interested growers through its newsletter and semi-annual conference.

Myles says, “The goal of the newsletter is to communicate to people the kind of research we are doing and our new discoveries.”

The latest issue connects consumers and growers with research progress and success stories of new growers, like a German couple, who moved to West Virginia to buy land and grow plants used for medicine and cosmetics. There is also information such as chamomile’s usefulness and how pine needles manufacture a compound important to the development of Tamiflu. It is the stuff that raises audience interest and expectations for new business opportunities.

“Most attendees are there to learn about the medicinal properties of plants,” Morales states. “Professionals in the herbal therapeutic industry come in and give the latest research on herbs for health. In the past, we’ve had doctors as far away as California come to speak on the use of herbs.”

The semi-annual conference is held at Mountain State University each spring and fall, with the next symposium scheduled for May 7.

In cooperation with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, the Medicinal Botanicals Program is currently working on what is its most important project — the promotion of animal health through the use of native West Virginia plants. The team is looking for nutritious plants that can be used as forages, and botanicals that can help deworm sheep and goats without having to use chemicals.

One such plant is purslane, which is a regular weed. It crawls on sidewalks, and it is one of the main weeds in crop fields and gardens.

“We see potential in it as foliage for goats because it is high in protein, essential fatty acids and vitamins E and C. It also has culinary uses,” Morales says. “It will improve meat quality for farmers.”

They are also exploring the possibility, not of discovering new pockets of ginseng for export, but maximizing the profit of existing ginseng by working with a co-op of farmers to develop a variety with an improved DNA makeup — one yielding more desirable properties for its root mass.

Other projects include genetically manipulating basil to develop more flavorful and aromatic strains for use in cooking or  extraction of essential oils, which have applications in cosmetic, food and medicine industries.

“Our underlying goal is to show woodland owners and farmland owners that a lot of things can be done as far as the herbal market is concerned,” comments Myles. “Through secondary products like soaps, perfumes, jams and jellies, what they grow can have some sort of medicinal quality.”

Morales gives credit where it’s due — to the farmers he and Myles have worked with, and for their vision and cooperation.

“We use their land to do research,” Morales says.

He names one farmer in particular, John Scott, whom he approached about renting a couple acres for planting research studies. Scott, perhaps paying it forward for a new generation of farmers, took them to one of his fields and told them to use as much land as they wanted — for free.

“They are the ones who do most of the work,” says Morales.

To learn more about the May conference and the Medicinal Botanical Program, contact Dr. Mario Morales at 304-929-1683 or Dean Myles at 304-929-1687, or visit the program’s website: www. mountainstate.edu/usda.

— E-mail: lmcmillion@register-herald.com