On the hunt for herbal remedies
Chris Kilham scours far-flung regions to source plants for a growing alternative medicine market in the West, writes Jeanette Wang
Several times a year, Chris Kilham ventures into the Amazonian jungles where he gets together with shamans for a few drinks. These are occasions that make a big Friday night in Lan Kwai Fong seem like a stroll through Victoria Park.
The Amazonian tipple of choice is ayahuasca, which Kilham describes as a "profoundly potent psychoactive plant brew". Made from a pounded mixture of the ayahuasca ( Banisteriopsis caapi) vine and the leaves of Psychotria viridis, the drink is rich in the hallucinogenic compound DMT and has long been used to induce spiritual visions. It has also proved useful for dealing with a range of conditions from fatigue and stomach problems to depression and psychological trauma.
"It's very powerful, and you spend all night having these wild visions while the shamans sing healing songs," Kilham says. "It's pretty out there, but it's actually medicine."
Such experiences are all in a day's work for the 61-year-old American, who has built up a global reputation as a medicine hunter over the past 30 years. Working on behalf of clients such as French botanical extraction giant Naturex and US-based supplement makers, Kilham has travelled to more than 30 countries to identify and establish trade in medicinal plants.
Invariably, he immerses himself in the local culture - whether that means joining firewalk rituals or getting high with shamans.
"If the way to get in with these healers, who know the use of hundreds of plants, is to sit in this ritual and drink this medicine with them, I'm going to do that," says Kilham, who was in Hong Kong last month for a natural foods expo. "It has been personally rewarding and also very good for my work."