Standing in the shadow of big Pharma, represented by GlaxoSmithKline, Quintiles and medical school giants Duke and UNC, is a small phalanx of community healers. Acharan Narula, Suki Roth and Will Endres don't have MD after their names, but they all are producing medicines and foods that help people.

Endres has been at the craft for 34 years. He walks in the woods and waits for the plants to speak to him. He carries the traditions from Native Americans, African Americans and Europeans. He senses an urgency in keeping this knowledge alive in what he deems herbalism's dark ages.

Conducting monthly herb walks, offering a course each fall, producing 90 products from wild-gathered plants, Endres has gained an encyclopedic knowledge. It started early he says, "I had my mother make me sassafrass tea from the roots I gathered when I was 6." By contrast, when I, at 6, brought home sassafrass root, and told my mom it smelled like root beer, she told me it might be poisonous and I'd better throw it out instead of drinking it.

"I like to gather herbs with the people," Endres says. "There's nothing like going out to gather what God put there and knowing you can get by on that."

Suki Roth has been at her craft for 18 years. This daughter of a doctor used herbs to help her own late father when he was overwhelmed by the side effects from medicine he took to manage his Parkinson's Disease. She grows her own rather than gather wild things and has a Web site: www.herbhaven.com.

An article by Roth from New Life Journal 2005, sums up her philosophy: "In our quest to hold herbalism up to the scientific eye, trying to mold it into a clinical science, we have lost touch with the very essence of herbal healing. It is not the clinically tested, standardized medicinal constituents of the plants we need for vitality and balance, but their more obscure, subtle properties ... the soothing relaxation, gladdening, quieting, emotional defrosting, and grounding our over stimulated minds and tired spirits are so much in need of right now."

Roth gets her products into medical offices as well as the nutrition aisles of local stores. She grows and processes dozens of plants into tinctures, teas, and extracts using alcohol and water to extract the healing elements, then squeezes them down through a hydraulic press into little bottles. MDs are using her stuff. It's not a secret. It's just not likely your insurance is going to pay for them.

Dr. Acharan Narula, 67, is also a local producer of alternative healing products but with a much different perspective from his herbalist colleagues. His doctorate in organic chemistry was followed by years of study with renowned scientists. His own knowledge combined with a severe allergic reaction to aspirin that accidentally resulted in severe nasal polyps followed by sinusitis, changed his approach to medical science. This chain of events led Narula on a years' long quest for remedies for inflammation and the resulting degenerative diseases like arthritis or ulcers.

Narula has developed a line of more than 20 products, all based on the theme of regulating and reducing inflammation -- whether it's in joints or organs. One product is Curcumin whose major ingredient is the ancient spice turmeric used in many Indian curries; but Dr. Narula's main product is known simply as "Itis-Care" used for reducing joint inflammation -- as in arthritis. While not yet clinically tested, you can find "Itis Care" in many local natural foods outlets and some doctor's offices, sold, of course, as a dietary supplement. It is in pill form, and is manufactured in California.

Armed with, scientific insights and a sheaf of testimonials backed by his spiritual belief, "Serving the Divine in the Heart of Man" Narula brings a fusion of spirituality and science to his work. You can reach Acharan Narula at anarula1@nc.rr.com: or find his products on store shelves locally.

MY VIEW

BLAIR POLLOCK