The medicine hunter

Unearthing rare tribal health secrets

Imagine a job that takes you to the ends of the earth. A job that requires constant interaction with reclusive tribes, learning their inherited wisdom – and showing them how to make a good living by using it. It’s win-win, isn’t it?

Welcome to the world of Medicine Hunter Chris Kilham. He’s been riding the wave of international interest in botanical medicine for decades, crossing the world on a mission to market incredible tribal secrets. We caught up with Chris before his latest Amazon trip to find out more about his incredible workload.

Could you explain your job title to us a little more?

I call myself a Medicine Hunter. I travel the world investigating natural, plant-based medicines and help to establish trade in those plants or enhance trades that already exist. On the one hand I work with indigenous people all around the world with their particular plants, then on the other hand I work with companies in the US and Europe and in other countries to create some real pull for these plants.

What effect does your work have?

It gets more good natural medicines out into the market place for people so they have a broader range of health choices; it helps to keep natural environments under agricultural and sustainable use, rather than perhaps devastated by some sort of extraction industry; thirdly, there’s usually a very good economic benefit for the people who work with these plants in the field.

CNN described you as the Indiana Jones of medicine. Is that a fair tag?

I’ve never had to run screaming out of a cave, being chased by a one hundred ton boulder! There is a bit of adventure along the way, bizarre things; engaging in war dances and fire walks, being greeted at a village by twenty screaming guys with spears and machetes, blow dart contests with natives in the Amazon – stuff happens.

Where does your work take you?

Everywhere. I was in the Amazon last week: it’s just a constant thing out there. When I think of some of the great places that I’ve spent time, highest on the list is Vanuatu, South Pacific. I first went to Vanuatu in ’95 and over a 10 year period was working with both Kava – a plant that’s highly beneficial for relieving anxiety – and also with Tamanu Oil, which is topical nut oil that has quite extraordinary and broad skin healing properties.

I worked on both of these with the natives and along the way I was named the Chief: I even wound up being the diplomatic representative of Vanuatu to the US for a term! I had many, many, escapades there: fire walks, near-death experiences, and hikes into remote spectacular forests. I mean, things that a lot of people just don’t get to do.

I made a ton of friends; I really had a rich, rich experience. That’s the big benefit to me, the people that I meet. So meeting the folks in Vanuatu and becoming close with many of them and establishing these very dear and enduring friendships is probably my biggest payoff in all of this in addition to getting the work done. That was finding out what some massive cosmetic company can do with the Tamanu Oil.

Kava is a fairly well known compound in the West, but Tamanu Oil isn't. Can you explain what it is?

It’s something that’s found throughout all of the Pacific islands. It comes from a coastal tree, which has this fruit that’s not edible; inside the fruit there’s this big nut. When you crack it open and expose the nut, and allow it to dry for a period of time, it gets very oily and the oil has spectacular healing properties that have been extensively well researched. 

We know what’s in it, and we know what it does. It’s antibacterial; it causes the growth of new skin. It does all these remarkable things.

Which places keep drawing you back?

I would also say that the Amazon and particularly the Peruvian Amazon and Peruvian Andes have been a really rich place for me to do work for about the past twelve years now.

What hidden medicines do the Andes hold?

I spend a very significant amount of time up on the Andes working with maca, which is a plant that has energizing, sex-enhancing and de-stressing properties. It's quite remarkable. We've taken something that was unknown and managed to make maca popular around the world: everybody is benefiting.

How do you hear about these plants?

In the case of maca, I was friends with a woman who worked in marketing in a very large herbal company in the United States. She told me that one of the top herbal scholars had told her about this plant up in the Andes called maca, and that it was really something special. He knew about it a year or two before I did and I started grousing around and eventually got my client at the time to be interested to send me there to check it out, to Peru. There I was first introduced to the whole Andean way of life. You are talking about people living about 4,000 metres up, in small communities, very poor, agriculturally based, with not much growth.

We took this mostly unknown root out of Peru, analyzed it and did scientific tests on it and discovered that this was really something amazing. Now hundreds of tons of dried maca root get shipped out of the highlands every year, and this has been of significant economic benefit to the people there.
The other economic options they have are really horrific, like mining. The Peruvian mines in the Andes are among the most devastatingly awful places on earth. Still, maca isn’t some sort of wild, lavish economic success where everybody is doing fabulously well. That's not how it goes – in agriculture very few people get rich. But these people are doing better, and we've taken something unknown and obscure and made it popular in the market.

What has been your most recent mission?

I was in China a few months ago, way out in what used to be called Outer Mongolia. Its now called Xinjiang, and it’s where the Uighur people live. There are these mountain ranges out there that are just spectacular beyond compare. I went there to see the harvesting of Rhodiola. Rhodiola is this magnificently well-studied plant that is brilliantly effective for treating depression, stress, low energy, mental fatigue, poor concentration and bad memory. It significantly boosts immune function and improves the heart. It does so many things that it can sound almost too good to be true. I consider it to be the greatest of all the medicinal plants.

Your work seems to take to you places where people are only just subsisting…

Well, economically they are poor places. I have to say in the case of Vanuatu, these people are very good at growing food and catching fish and they raise chickens and stuff, so they are fed. They are not starving. They have an ample and pretty wonderful food supply, but you know, they might not have the money to buy a pair of flip flops.

Do locals always co-operate with you when you find a plant to use?

When you approach people about plants that are of high value in their culture, something that is part of their traditional heritage, it hits this deep place of pride. It’s the multi-generational thing: “Yeah, you know my grandmother used to use that a lot and she taught me about it.” It’s something very deep in people.

If there was one medicine you would recommend to a tired traveler, what would it be?

For people who want to perform at a higher level, who want to maximize their inner biological advantages, I’d recommend Rhodiola rosea. This stuff makes you feel bombproof: I’m not kidding. Whether you work out at the gym or hike or cycle or do martial arts or surf, you are going to feel better. You are going to be stronger and you are going to have more inner energy if you use this stuff.

You rack up a lot of miles in your job. How do you cope physically?

I am sensitive to the need to stay fit. At least half my time I’m on planes, trains, buses and boats with sketchy apparatus, sleeping in hotels – but not always hotels – and eating irregularly. It’s critically important for me to stay fit and strong, so I practice yoga every day of my life. I hike as often as I can. I body surf and boat and do other things whenever I can. I know from personal experience that these things really help. They make you feel great.

Find out more about Chris Kilham and the plants he works with here