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Palmetto Berries Are Ripe For Theft

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By KEITH MORELLI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 9, 2007

TAMPA - The rugged palmetto bush grows all across Florida, but a group of 14 risked arrest to harvest the plants in the Golden Aster Scrub Nature Preserve, on East Bay Road near Gibsonton.

The reason: The hidden fruit of the common palmetto is good as gold in the view of some prostate cancer patients. Saw palmetto berries, according to medical folklore and some herbalists, are a natural healer.

The bushes are prolific on the preserve, and berry theft there has escalated into a serious problem this year, parks officials say. Thieves sell the berries for nearly $1 a pound to processing plants that convert them to powders and pills.

The group arrested last week, all Guatemalans, picked enough berries and plants to fill a small trailer. They are charged with illegally removing plants. All plants at the preserve are protected. They had been warned once.

Thursday, two more people were arrested inside the park and charged with unlawful removal of plants. Both men, an 18-year-old from Tampa and a 38-year-old from Immokalee, were booked into Orient Road Jail, with bail set at $250.

Studies Show Health Benefits

Ray Sahelian, a doctor and nutritionist who wrote the book 'Saw Palmetto: Nature's Prostate Healer,' is a believer in the plant as a natural remedy.

Sahelian, who practices medicine in Los Angeles, said saw palmetto berries were ingested by Seminole Indians in Florida and later by early settlers, who watched animals and livestock safely consume the berries.

'Several studies in Europe two to three decades ago showed that when extracts were taken, often after several weeks, improvement in some kinds of prostate enlargement would occur,' Sahelian said.

'There have been dozens of studies, and most, but not all, have shown good benefits.'

He said berries are sold in health food stores or online in a capsulated powder form or in a more potent extract.

'More and more doctors are starting to recognize that perhaps saw palmetto berries have a place in medicine for those patients not interested in the pharmaceutical approach,' Sahelian said.

He said extracts and berry powder are inexpensive, and there's no shortage of palmetto bushes.

'You would need to collect a lot of berries to make a good profit,' he said.

A Place In American Folklore

The saw palmetto, Serenoa serrulata, is found in swampy areas of the South and along the East Coast, especially in warmer climates. Florida residents can hardly drive a mile without seeing them along a road, in a pasture or covering the ground under tall pines and oaks.

The fruit is a dark purple to black berry that grows in clusters and ripens from fall through December, according to the Web site www.springboard4health.com.

The Web site says the berries have a place in American folklore:

Medical researchers in the late 1800s began looking into the benefits of the berries, Springboard says, and pressure from berry proponents in the medical field got the fruit included in the United States Pharmacopeia-National Formulary.

The listing was dropped in the 20th century 'as the medical profession's enthusiasm for natural agents waned,' the Web site says.

The berry mainly affects the digestive system. It stimulates appetite and provides nutrition.

Folklore also says berries can increase breast size and decrease ovarian and uterine irritability in addition to relieving inflammation, blockage and rupture of the prostate.

There is no known toxin in the berries, the Web site says.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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