The ethnobotany and medicinal properties of rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea) in Labrador and potential applications in community-based nutraceutical marketing enterprises

Rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea) is valuable in both traditional healing modalities and the natural products industry, due to the medicinal constituents found in its roots and rhizome. However, global commercial demand is almost exclusively fulfilled by wild-harvested Eurasian rhodiola rhizomes, leading to overharvest in those areas. The only rhodiola cultivated in North America is of Russian origin, grown by way of a grower’s cooperative, the Alberta Rhodiola Rosea Growers Organization (ARRGO). Cultivating a North American source of rhodiola in Labrador would create an opportunity for a sustainable, aboriginal, community-based enterprise to produce a northern, fair trade natural health product. Strong support from Nunatsiavut Inuit Elders and community prompted research to investigate Labrador rhodiola as a natural health product, for the development of a local enterprise with benefits for participating communities.