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A Business from Gumweed

I recently came across The Gumweed plant as I was researching how to produce fuel from plants. The US government actually seriously researched the possibility of using gumweed as jet fuel because of its properties. Besides this information there are also people who make money selling gumweed and its byproducts.


What is Gumweed?

Grindella or Gumweed is a group of plants native to the Americas and belongs to the sunflower family. This is according to Wikipedia. They are related to herbal plants or subshrubs or even shrubs with annual, biennial (every other year), or perennial (existing a long time or recurring) life cycles.

The flowerheads are composed of numerous yellow disc florets (a flower within a flower) which are usually between 100 to 200 and from 0 to sixty or more yellow or orange ray florets. Their flower is very distinctive.

For a more detailed information of gumweed I suggest you try using the USDA database information of one of the most popular gumweed: Grindelia Squarrosa or Curlycup Gumweed from their plants profile.


Where Does Gumweed Grow?

As mentioned the plant primarily grows in the Americas although it has been introduced in Asia and Australia.They are hardy plants and could easily grow in many parts of the world. You could find reports about them growing in Canada and the UK among others. They are also reported as growing all over Europe.

They are also classified as an invasive plants and could easily took over large areas from other plants. The lack of water in many dry areas is not a problem for these plants as they thrive even in these conditions.

One thing I noticed is the relative lack of suppliers of this plant in many parts of the world except in America. Also, most YouTube videos I watched regarding gumweed seems to be from Americans. Safe to say as far as online information most seems to be coming from America.

But there seems to be a demand for it in some places in the world and not only in America. I found some Asian, European as well as an Australian online shop selling the raw plant.


What Can We Do with Gumweed?

If you are lucky enough to have access to gumweed because it freely grows in an area accessible to you or you plant it yourself then you can harvest them for profit. They are primarily used for medicine but as I would enumerate they have other uses:


Medicine

It breaks up mucus and is an expectorant. It is good for the common cold and flu. There are commercially made medicines made from it. In general it clears up the lungs and improves the passage of air into the lungs. This being said, it is also good for cough problems.

It also has anti-bacterial properties. It is especially good for the harmful bacterias in the urinary tract. All in all it is a good anti-bacterial medicine. You can for example apply it in your wounds to sterilize it.

Speaking of wounds it is generally a good medicine for skin problems. You could use it for insect and animal bites, boils, burns, rashes, dermatitis and from rashes from toxic plants. It is actually a well known cure for poison ivy rashes and oak poison.

People buy commercially made medicines derived from this plant or the plant itself either fresh or dried. However most of the raw packaged plants being sold online are dried in some form or another. This means there is commercial value in the plant even though they have already died and dried up.


Tea

One of the uses for dried gumweed would be tea. There are many herbalist who sell dried gumweed in tea pouches or in loose form. People primarily drink gumweed tea as a relaxant. There are those who claim that gumweed has a calming effect.

If you are in the tea business then it would be a good thing to explore your gumweed tea market. This is especially because it is also reported that gumweed is good for the heart as a relaxant. If you have clients with heart problems you can market the tea to them.


Fuel

Just like many plants gumweed produce oil that some marketers in the skincare industry promoter as a skincare product. However this same oil can also be used as fuel. In fact, the US military during world war 2 and perhaps even now is still conducting research on it.

The US military thinks that gumweed oil would make good jet fuel. This I have previously mentioned before. This same information is also repeated by some of the YouTube videos I watched and online articles I read.

But there is a caveat in this. Though this is possible no one has effectively marketed gumweed oil as jet fuel or even just plain fuel. There are simply so many sources of fuel today which are already long established and cheap that introducing a new one seems very repetitive.

Rather than concentrating on selling gumweed fuel I would recommend instead on the marketing of gumweed oil as herbal therapy. This means marketing them as products for example in skincare, aromatherapy and so on.


Handicraft

Many plants either fresh or dried have found uses in handicrafts. There are many sellers in Etsy for example who sell products made from gumweed or the actual plant itself. Some sell dried gumweed while other sell whole gumweed plants complete with their pots.


Room Freshener/Decoration/Perfume

You cannot find gumweed plants with their flowers in regular flower shops. There are however specialist flower shops that sell what are categorized as wild flowers. This includes gumweed flowers.

Gumweed flowers are not as beautiful as rose flowers for example but they have a charm all to their own and could be beautiful as a support piece in flower bouquets. If you are in the flower shop business or a flower supplier to flower shops or other businesses you could include gumweed flowers to your products list.

It is wise to know that gumweed flowers have a balsamic smell. Balsamic smells are a staple feature in many perfumes that is why gumweed is currently used in aromatherapy and perfumes.

This means at the very best you could be a perfumer for a plant which is considered a nuisance in many parts of the world because of its invasive nature. You could use the very invasiveness characteristics of this plant to grow them in abundance.


Quick and Easy

If you think making products from gumweed is a complicated process then I could show two YouTube videos which shows how easy it is to make a gumweed tincture and extracting oil from gumweed:

Extracting Oil from Gumweed Video

The YouTube video is from the Youtube Channel Cody’s Lab. In the video Cody (the host of the channel) gathers gumweed plants from a nearby land and cuts them up into small pieces. He then fills a big laboratory flask with the gumweed pieces.

He then puts a small amount of water in the flask just enough to cover the bottom. Then he attaches a Clevenger Apparatus on the top of the flask. Cody intends to use steam distillation to extract the oil from the gumweed. He then heats up the flask and as the video would show near the end the oil is extracted using this setup.

If you read the comments in the bottom you would see helpful tips on how to extract more oil from gumweed. One suggested that more water should be added to the flask to improve the strength of the steaming process.

Another suggestion is to cut the gumweed pieces into even smaller pieces even to the point of powdering them. You could duplicate the process in this video and experiment until you extract more oil from gumweed.

I have intentionally redirected you to the main YouTube site so you can see the comments in the videos. This would allow you to see both the positive and negative reactions of the viewers and maybe gain more helpful insights not presented in the video.

One thing is for sure. The process of extracting oil from gumweed is simple. The only problem I can see you having from this setup is the acquisition of the Clevenger Apparatus. The flask and the heating apparatus can be acquired easily.

So with this simple setup you can be ready for business in no time at all. All you need is a steady source of gumweed and this setup and you are ready to sell gumweed oil.

You can also use this setup to extract essential oils from other plants. So if you live in an area that has plenty of greenery your investment in this setup won’t be wasted. You can easily harvest the oils of the plants near your area.

Making Gumweed Tincture Video

The next video is making Gumweed Tincture. Tincture is the dissolving of drugs, plants and other things in alcohol to make a medicine. This video shows precisely that.

Though the video is blongwinded and the presenter seems to go offtopic from time to time it nevertheless shows a simple way to make a gumweed tincture.

The key point is her explanation of using 100% proof vodka. According to her 100% proof vodka is 50% alcohol and 50% water. This is all the ingredient needed to make a gumweed tincture without having to worry about water composition content mixture when using other forms of alcohol.

Her process is simple:
1. Get a jar and fill it with cut up small pieces of gumweed.
2. Fill the jar with 100% proof vodka and cover the jar.
3. Keep the jar in a cool place for six to eight weeks and wait till its ready.
4. Use the gumweed tincture for your needs.


As can be seen by both videos there are simple ways of creating products from gumweed and even perhaps from other plants using both methods presented in these videos. It is very clear that you can do this in your own home using only the very basic of materials.

It is also very clear that you can do this business very cheaply (gumweed grows almost everywhere freely) and in your spare time. The distillation process takes only a short time while adding vodka only takes minutes.


Setting Up Business

If you are selling raw plant products then you must consider the legalities involved. If you grow you own gumweed then you should have no problem. If however you intend to harvest gumweed from lands that you do not own be sure to get the permit of whoever owns or manages the land.

For example I saw a website that is owned by Native Americans. In their website they sell plants that came from their area or in their territory which includes gumweed. If you happen to harvest gumweed in their territory you would definitely have problems with them. Native Americans for example are allowed to freely harvest plants from their settlement areas.

You may see a demand for live gumweed plants and seeds even from overseas buyers. In fact there are some online shops that do sell live gumweed plants and seeds as well as of other plants. You should do your checks first before starting one.

Importing and Exporting plants even just plain seeds could be very difficult. First you have to obtain the necessary permits to export and import. Next you have to ensure that the plants do not die during the overseas transport process.

If you plant to sell gumweed based medicines then you also need to get approved by the government medical regulators. Medical products are very highly regulated by many countries around the world.

Even selling dried gumweed as tea can also be troublesome. Food products are also another highly regulated industry by many countries in the world. This is especially so since gumweed can be toxic when consumed in large quantities.

Even animals avoid eating gumweed if they can avoid it. Many animals only eat gumweed whenever there is no other food around like some sort of emergency food. Animals are known however to eat them whenever they are sick.


Conclusion

Gumweed is an ideal plant to base a business with because of two important features. They are hardy and can grow mostly anywhere especially in dry areas. They are also classified as being invasive species. This two features means that there is an abundance of them in nature.

Many products can also be derived from them especially medical and personal care. They can even be made into fuel. Making products from them is also simple and can even be made from home using only the very basic of materials.


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