N RANCHING
atural Resources
zor blade, view it under a mobile phone microscope, and make a defi nitive iden- tifi cation of the species. “A farmer could do it in a fi eld,” says Will McClatchey, BRIT vice president of research. “Keller has given proof-of-concept to a proce- dure any herbal company could use to verify the identity of their materials if they wanted to pass on this level of confi dence to the consumer.” Ranchers, cattlemen, and farmers
Yellow prairie conefl ower (Echinacea paradoxa var. paradoxa) in the foreground and pale reddish/purple conefl ower (Echinacea pallid) in background growing together. Photo provided by Harold Keller.
other pile of ground herbs. This research could provide a new technique for authenticating samples.” Keller originally completed his research on Echina-
cea as part of his work toward his Master’s Degree in Botany in the early 1960s at the University of Kansas. Soon after completing the research, he joined the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps and served for more than 3-1/2 years. He then began working toward a Ph.D. at the Uni-
versity of Iowa, concentrating his research on fungi and slime molds. His Echinacea research was set aside but never forgotten — although he was surprised it hadn’t been duplicated in the last 52 years. In fact, he might not have been able to resume his previous research at all, had his mother not saved all of his Echinacea black and white fi lm negatives for many years, along with the log books used to identify and make the digital images. “I conducted an extensive review of the literature to
see what other work had been done on Echinacea and realized no one else had studied the microanatomy of the stems and fl owers,” said Keller. The painstaking nature of the research was likely
behind the unwillingness of other scientists to take it on. Keller had to make slices of the plant only millime- ters wide, apply multiple stains to bring out different details, and then carefully mount the slices on slides for examination under a microscope. Fortunately, such exacting work isn’t necessary to
see the unique details of different Echinacea species. It would be possible to slice into a plant sample with a ra-
70 The Cattleman February 2015
wishing to follow best management and conservation practices will benefi t from species identifi cation of Echinacea. Bio- diversity that includes prairie cone fl ow- ers is a key indicator of healthy ecosys- tems, represented by prairie meadows and grasslands that provide potential forage and grazing areas for cattle and other wildlife.
Bob J. O’Kennon, a research botanist at BRIT, has
studied the ecosystem of the Lyndon B. Johnson Na- tional Grasslands in north central Texas near Fort Worth for 29 years. “O’Kennon has observed three species of Echinacea in this area.”
About Echinacea Echinacea was a highly prized medicinal plant for the Native American Plains tribes. It was used, among other things, to relieve toothaches, soothe burns and treat snake bites. Conefl owers are na- tive to North America and are not found naturally elsewhere in the world. Species grow from Texas to the Dakotas, the Carolinas and Georgia, with dis- tribution centered in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Echinacea species are key indicators of healthy ecosystems, represented by grasslands and prairie meadows serving as forage and grazing areas for cattle and other wildlife. Echinacea tennesseensis was one of the fi rst plant species listed on the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Species in 1979, but was removed in 2011 with the discovery of new populations and the hard work of conservationists. However, another species, Echinacea laevigata, was added to the list in 1992 and remains there today.
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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