Better Than Blueberries and $40 Pills. Why Do They Hate This Plant?

The Victorian Gift That Became a Nightmare

In 1850, Philipp Franz von Siebold, a German physician working for the Dutch East India Company in Japan, collected over 1,000 native plants during six years in the country. Among his specimens was a hardy plant from volcanic debris fields. It grew where other plants failed. The young shoots tasted like rhubarb and the roots were medicine. In Japanese and Chinese traditional medicine, it treated skin infections, heart problems, and liver ailments.

Von Siebold returned to Holland and founded a commercial nursery, marketing Japanese knotweed aggressively at 500 francs for a mother plant. In 1850, he sent an unsolicited package to Kew Gardens in London containing 40 plant varieties. Kew distributed it. By 1854, commercial nurseries were selling it. Gardeners adored it. Railroad companies planted it along embankments. Even famous landscapers included it in their planting lists. By 1900, Japanese knotweed had rooted itself in western soil from England to the Pacific Northwest.

How One Clone Conquered the West

All Japanese knotweed in the West descends from a single female specimen. Every plant is a clone, genetically identical. They do not produce seeds. They spread entirely through rhizome fragments. One broken piece thrown in a river, one contaminated load of soil, one tiny fragment in garden waste is all it takes. The plant grows 4 inches per day, reaching 10 feet in height. The rhizomes spread 23 feet in all directions and 10 feet deep. A fragment the size of a fingernail regenerates into a full plant. It grows through asphalt, concrete, and building foundations.

The $200 Million War Against a Weed

In the UK, the government spends over $200 million every year fighting Japanese knotweed. Homeowners spend up to $25,000 removing it from their gardens. Mortgage lenders reject properties that have it. It is illegal to plant it and illegal to cause it to grow in the wild. The plant is classified as controlled waste. You cannot throw it in your trash or compost it. In 2012, nearly $90 million was spent removing knotweed from the Olympic Park site in London alone. By the 21st century, it had infested 42 states in the United States.

A Spring Delicacy in Japan

The young shoots taste like lemony rhubarb, slightly earthy and less acidic. Harvest them in early spring when they are 1 to 2 feet tall. The stems are hollow like bamboo, tender and crisp. Only harvest from unsprayed areas. In Japan, itadori is foraged in spring. The young stems are eaten raw, grilled, sauteed, or pickled. High-end restaurants serve it. In Vietnam, people eat it regularly as a spring delicacy.

The Richest Source of Resveratrol on Earth

The roots contain the highest concentration of resveratrol of any plant on Earth. Not just resveratrol, but trans-resveratrol, the active isomer, the form your body absorbs. Many plants only contain cis-resveratrol, which is far less bioactive. The roots also contain emodin, polydatin, and quercetin, all bioactive compounds with documented antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, cardioprotective, and neuroprotective effects.

Studies show resveratrol affects all stages of carcinogenesis: initiation, promotion, and progression. Research on hypertensive rats showed it lowers blood pressure. Research on diabetic mice showed it lowers blood glucose. Pharmaceutical companies extract resveratrol from Japanese knotweed and sell it in capsules for $40 a month.

The Lyme Disease Protocol

Stephen Harrod Buhner, the American herbalist, developed a natural protocol for Lyme disease with Japanese knotweed at its core. The compound kills Borrelia spirochetes, the bacteria that cause Lyme. It crosses the blood-brain barrier. It protects the nervous system and inhibits autoimmune processes. Buhner's protocol has been used by over 100,000 patients.

The Edible, Medicinal Plant We Spend Billions Killing

The global economy loses billions per year controlling this plant. The entire time, it is edible and medicinal, and it contains compounds pharmaceutical companies extract and sell. If you harvest the plant yourself, it is free. If you dig the roots, dry them, and powder them, the resveratrol is yours.

In its homeland, they called it itadori, meaning "take away pain." For thousands of years, it was food and medicine on volcanic slopes where nothing else would grow. Then a Victorian botanist sent it to the west as a gift.