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Cow cabbage, which flourishes in mountain meadows of the U.S. Southwest, was once seen as a worthless invasive weed targeted for eradication by ranchers.
But the toxic roots of the native plant holds compounds that could help combat cancer and a Utah entrepreneur hopes to harvest it in the Manti-La Sal National Forest to supply researchers testing new therapies.
The Wasatch Plateau is the best place to harvest cow cabbage, known by the scientific name Veratrum californicum, because plants growing there contain high concentrations of the anti-cancer compound cyclopamine, as much as 0.6 percent in the roots, according to Warren Johnson, founder of Ephraim-based EcoPharm.
After completing an environmental assessment last month, the U.S. Forest Service is poised to authorize EcoPharm's proposal to harvest veratrum root at the head of Potters Valley, a few miles east of Mount Pleasant.
"It is a neat opportunity. There is revenue generation for the American public and this has the potential of curing a certain type of skin cancer," said Darren Olsen, the Manti-La Sal's Ferron district ranger.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm PellePharm Inc. will buy the cyclopamine Johnson produces to test in a treatment for a highly malignant skin cancer called basal cell nevus syndrome, or Gorlin syndrome.
EcoPharm's proposal targets an area with 100 acres of dense stands of veratrum — also called corn lily and false hellebore — growing near existing roads.
"A lot of the time there is not a lot of use by wildlife," Olsen said. "In the end we are able to restore some of these areas that in the past have been dominated by veratrum and provide an unusual product."
Range scientists say dense cow cabbage is the result of overgrazing, so environmentalists argue the Forest Service officials should reduce sheep numbers on the Wasatch Plateau if they want to address the problem of cow cabbage "monoculture."
Tony Frates of the Utah Native Plant Society questioned the proposed harvest.
Because it involves a native, locally adapted plant of high-elevation meadows and streams, Frates said it "would seem to violate certain mandates that federal agencies have with respect to managing native plants and their ecosystems, especially since they will apparently have to dig up the plants completely.
"This should not proceed until restoration ecologists and others in the botanical community have a chance to provide input," Frates wrote in an e-mail. "Disturbance in these areas will just lead to a different 'weed' problem."
The toxicological effects of veratrum were first observed in lambs born with deformities. Many plants evolve toxins to ward off bugs and animals and biomedical scientists have discovered these can be harness for medicinal uses. Many chemotherapy drugs are derived from compounds discovered in plants that were later synthesized after their molecular structures were mapped.
But no one has figured out how to economically synthesize cyclopamine, which gets its name from the one-eyed giant in Greek mythology.
Cow cabbage is tough to grow in an agricultural setting, so for now it has to be obtained from the wild. For reasons that are not well understood, cow cabbage growing at high elevations like Potters Valley at 8,000 feet contains higher levels of cyclopamine.
PellePharm acquired the drug line under development from a company that used cow cabbage Johnson helped harvest several years ago in Utah. Infinity Pharmaceuticals pulled the plug on that project in 2012 even though the trials showed that cyclopamine showed promise against pancreatic cancer, according to Johnson.
"The chemical was too toxic as a systemic drug," he said. But evidence indicated the body can absorb a therapeutic dose through the skin, so EcoPharm is now testing cyclopamine in a topical gel that can be applied to cancerous lesions. The company is hoping to develop a "hedgehog pathway inhibitor" to treat basal cell carcinomas, including those in Gorlin, a devastating and rare genetic skin disease.
It takes three years from harvest before the cyclopamine can be processed into a drug, according to Johnson.
EcoPharm will harvest in Potters Valley for four to six weeks each summer, tapping 12 to 15 acres a year for the next 10 years. The harvest window will open once the soils dry out, around late July, although this year it may not be until mid-August. Johnson will hire about 15 to 20 people to harvest and process the roots.
They will first mow the stalks to the ground and then lift the roots from using a customized digger hauled behind a tractor.
Johnson will dry the roots and ship them to a plant in Milan, Italy where the cyclopamine will be extracted for use by PellePharm in its clinical trials.
The disturbed areas will be reseeded with native herbaceous flowering plants and grasses, rather than cow cabbage. This rehab regime worked well in Boulger Canyon, a spot a few miles to the north where Infinity harvest cow cabbage, according to Johnson.
"Where we dig it is more conducive for grass growing," Johnson said. "It is substantially better with a higher variety of plants and fewer noxious weeds."
Twitter: @brianmaffly