Traditional forest medicinal plant ghost pipe used differently today

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Despite a long history of traditional medicinal use in the United States, the collection, consumption and efficacy of the peculiar forest plant aptly named ghost pipe, scientific name Monotropa uniflora, remains a mystery. Now, with social media and the internet driving a resurgence in the harvest and economic trade of the parasitic species — which appears strangely white because it is devoid of chlorophyl — a research team from Penn State has taken the first step toward documenting its new status.

“This study is the first to scientifically document use of ghost pipe in North America, along with the growing influence of social media and the internet on how and why people are turning to ghost pipe as a medicinal plant,” said team leader and senior author on the study Eric Burkhart, teaching professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences. “As a wild harvested species, little has been documented about its use throughout the U.S. and any growing conservation needs. This study helps to inform future research and education efforts so that consumer safety and wild conservation efforts can both be appropriately targeted and aligned.”    

In findings recently published in Economic Botany, the researchers reported the results of  a digital survey they conducted within the United States asking participants whether they have foraged, consumed or prescribed ghost pipe. The results showed that social media and the internet were the primary source of information and learning for respondents. Notably, respondents overwhelmingly reported consuming ghost pipe in tincture form and for pain management. Both findings appear to be recent developments, Burkhart said, as there is limited indication from the historical record that ghost pipe was prepared and used in these ways.

The survey received responses from 489 individuals. Most respondents — 96% — identified as a consumer of ghost pipe, and 87% identified as a forager or both. While pain management was the most commonly reported reason for consuming ghost pipe, survey respondents reported that they ingested ghost pipe for a myriad of reasons, including as a sedative to help them sleep, enhance relaxation, deal with depression or grief, ease anxiety or trauma, lessen eye irritation and reduce symptoms of alcohol or opiate withdrawal.

These results suggest that the internet has emerged as an important platform not only for learning and sharing ghost pipe ethnobotany, the study of the relationship between people and plants, but also for developing new traditions and practices, according to study first author Savannah Anez, a doctoral degree candidate in plant biology. The survey results highlight the contemporary need to understand ghost pipe ethnobotany in the context of an increasingly influential digital world, she suggested.

“We use the term ‘digital ethnobotany’ to refer to ethnobotany within a virtual environment, leveraging new technology to study the relationship between people and plants, while also exploring the development of traditional knowledge and practices within the digital spaces themselves,” Anez said. 

Ghost pipe is a parasite to mycorrhizal fungi in forest soils — meaning that it draws nutrients from those fungi, while those fungi in turn are connected to trees in the forest in a symbiotic relationship, Anez explained. She pointed out that ghost pipe is one of thousands of traditional medicinal plants around the world with a documented ethnobotanical use that has not had its specific biochemistry studied. Traditional medicinal plants have historically been excellent sources for drug discovery, she said, so this is a massive biochemical frontier just waiting to be explored.

Anez explained that she is trying to fill that knowledge gap through her dissertation work characterizing the specific chemistry and bioactivity of ghost pipe. Her goal is to identify the specific pain-relieving compounds in the plant. One research project currently underway is a study of ghost pipe’s pain-relieving effects in mice, which she said has produced promising preliminary results. She was recently awarded a prestigious F31 Predoctoral Fellowship through the National Institutes of Health that will fund her investigation of ghost pipe as a potential pain reliever through 2027.

“We need to determine whether or not it has potential as a novel therapeutic or medicine,” she said. “We have acquired a lot of the chemistry data already but given that plant extracts are a complex mix of thousands of compounds, we need more medicinal activity data to be able to identify the specific compound(s) responsible for pain relief — finding the actual ‘smoking gun’ is the challenge. Because ghost pipe siphons nutrients from an underground fungal network it shares with trees, the question of its bioactivity and biochemistry is also more complex than a typical medicinal plant.”

Joshua Kellogg, assistant professor in veterinary and biomedical sciences, contributed to the study.

The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Wild Resource Conservation Program.