Healing Ecosystems has spent the past 4 years working with Japanese Knotweed in order to use this highly invasive and powerful plant. We hosted two events with Fiberhouse Collective in Marshall, NC where we tinctured the roots, created facial salves and used the shoots for paper-making.

We hosted a knotweed tincture-making event in January of 2025 with the aim of making high-potency tincture based on research we conducted. Winter harvested roots hold the highest amount of secondary metabolites, namely Resveratrol, which provide immense medicinal value to our community. Participants took home a large amount of tincture and a portion of the medicine goes to local free apothecaries to be distributed to the wider community.

Whether you find it to be coincidental, mystical or somewhere in between, the range of Knotweed in the eastern US has a profound overlap with the greatest numbers of tick-borne illnesses, mainly Lyme disease. Knotweed is considered to be a highly effective treatment for Lyme as well as many of the co-infections associated with it.

The clinical research on Knotweed and resveratrol is vast, with several hundred studies that have shown its medicinal value for a variety of ailments. While it’s obvious that knotweed has deleterious effects on native habitats, we cannot skirt around the fact that it can be used for so many purposes as a part of our strategy for reducing its population and restoring biodiversity.