Last week, I spent a memorable evening at the Wild Medicine Exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden (Bronx, NY), sponsored by AmorePacific. The global skincare brand combines Asian botanicals with antioxidant-rich green tea, bamboo sap, and red ginseng, which the company cultivates at its own garden located at the foot of Halla Mountain on the Pacific Isle of Jeju, off the coast of Korea. The purpose of this trip was to discover and see firsthand some of the plant ingredients used in the AmorePacific products, as well as to discover how we rely on plants for everything from medicine to cosmetics.
AmorePacific was the first skincare company to use green tea extracts to benefit the skin. Their products are formulated with botanical ingredients, as opposed to water, which is beneficial for the skin. AmorePacific partners with world-renowned researchers, such as Dr. David Weitz’s Research Group at Harvard University to continue evolving in their products. Their products include the Future Response Age Defense Creme SPF 30, which addresses the signs of aging while shielding the skin from environmental stressors. Green tea and pine mushroom extracts are two of the main ingredients used combined with Asian botanicals to provide results that reduce skin’s sensitivity and increase absorbency. AmorePacific products are available at the AmorePacific Beauty Gallery and Spa (located at 114 Spring Street in New York City), Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, and Sephora.
Here are two interesting facts I learned about (medicine) plants at the exhibit:
1. During the Italian Renaissance, women dropped juices from the very poisonous belladonna plant into their eyes to dilate the pupil, which was considered elegant, and it was suppose to attract the male species, but the gesture also led to blindness. Today, doctors use careful dosages of the plants’ active chemical, atropine, to dilate the pupils, address it as a sleeping aid, and help relax the muscles.
2. The rosy periwinkle is not only a pretty pink flower, but it's the source of two powerful cancer-fighting chemicals used in some forms of chemotherapy: vincristine and vinblastine.
Here are a few of the photos I took at the exhibit:
The Wild Medicine Exhibit is open through Sept. 8. To learn more about the exhibit, visit: www.nybg.org.