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Tea Cultures of the North
Connecting to the Plant Wisdom of the Arctic

Wednesday, 19 March 2025, 3–5pm Helsinki Time (Zoom)
In collaboration with the International Network for Tea Studies and The White Horse Press
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Labrador Tea Flower. Photo by David Cartier, Sr. (Flickr)

On Wednesday, 19th March 2025 at 3pm Helsinki, Finland time, the Kone Foundation-supported project Gifts from the Sentient Forest will host a cross-disciplinary discussion of wild and cultivated tea plants of Northern Europe. Gifts from the forest come in diverse forms including as wild healing teas gathered across the Northern seasons as part of land-based cultural traditions. This seminar will connect the idea of forest sentience to the detoxification, rejuvenation, and healing of people, plants, and places. With diverse backgrounds in phytochemical research, Indigenous Sámi culture, and natural products design, our speakers will share their knowledge of the curative attributes of angelica, coltsfoot, Labrador tea, nettle, northern sweetgrass, roseroot, willow, and other northern species. This event will be held in collaboration with the newly formed International Network for Tea Studies as well as the new plant humanities journal Plant Perspectives published by The White Horse Press. Click here to download a PDF version of the seminar flyer.        

 

 

Spring Immunity Teas of Sápmi

By Åsa Andersson Martti

Åsa will discuss important spring immunity teas of the Torne Valley region in northern Sweden including the forests and meadows of the Kiruna and Lainio areas. After a long winter, spring is when both people and animals are their weakest. At this time, everyone is waiting eagerly for the lifesaving green helpers to begin sprouting. Especially powerful immune teas include coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara), used medicinally by Sámi and Tornedalian people to treat coughs and flus, as well as willow (Salix spp.) for flu headaches. In contrast to fresh wild teas, “dry teas” are harvested the year before. In Lainio, people smoked dried coltsfoot and willow for super fast healing effects.

 

 

Phytochemical Profiling and Biological Activities of Rhododendron Subsect. Ledum: Exploring the Medicinal Potential of Labrador Tea in the Northern Hemisphere

By Martyna Vengrytė and Lina Raudonė
 

This presentation explores Labrador tea species' phytochemical composition and biological activities from the Rhododendron subsection Ledum. By analysing key bioactive compounds, the study targets their potential medicinal benefits, particularly for traditional and modern therapeutic applications in the Northern Hemisphere. The research highlights the potential of these plants in promoting health and wellness.

 

The presentation will be based on the published article: M Vengrytė & L. Raudonė. Phytochemical Profiling and Biological Activities of Rhododendron Subsect. Ledum: Discovering the Medicinal Potential of Labrador Tea Species in the Northern Hemisphere. Plants. 2024; 13(6):901.

Arctic Herbs for Health and Wellbeing
 

By Katja Misikangas

This presentation will cover some of Katja’s favourite Arctic herbs for health and wellbeing. Katja has followed the footsteps of her mother and great-grandfather and is now putting her life long experience in herbs into practice as CEO of Arctic Warriors. Her mother has a strong background in traditional medicine, and healers run in the family as far back as she’s been able to trace. Katja’s favorite herbs are garden angelica and roseroot cultivated at Katja’s homestead in Narkaus and also produced by agreement by roughly ten cultivators across Lapland. In addition to cultivated plants, her products use wild herbs such as nettle and northern sweetgrass.

 

ABOUT OUR PRESENTERS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Åsa Andersson Martti is an Indigenous Sámi and Tornedalian artist, healer and academic researcher. Åsa has studied landscaping, psychology, religion, rhetoric, dreams, traditional Chinese medicine, and Sámi traditional healing practices. She is founder of the historical and animistic pilgrim trail ‘Sámi Trail of Tears’ based on her mother’s childhood memories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Katja Misikangas is Founder and CEO of Arctic Warriors Ltd. based in Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland. She is a fourth-generation healer and herbalist raised in the Arctic wilderness and deeply rooted in Finnish Lapland above the Arctic Circle. Knowledge of herbs and folk medicine runs in her family. She has been involved in the development of the natural products industry since young adulthood, working as a product developer, trainer, and lecturer. Katja’s favorite herb is Angelica archangelica, which keeps the flu away from this active lady and her two children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lina Raudonė is currently working as a professor and Chief Researcher in the Department of Pharmacognosy and Laboratory of Biopharmaceutical Research, Institute of Pharmaceutical Technologies, respectively. Characteristics of her scientific research include  (1) phytochemical and antioxidant studies of plant raw materials; (2) research on diversification of functional, biopharmaceutical and related product quality indicators and development of methodological solutions. She has published 53 articles in the Web of Science database with a citation index, and 16 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. She has presented her research at 124 international scientific conferences.

 

Martyna Vengrytė is a second-year PhD student at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Her PhD thesis is focused on the biological activity and phytochemistry of plants in the Rhododendron genus Ledum subsection.

 

 

 

 

 

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© 2025 by Gifts from the Sentient Forest: Collaboration & Communication Between People & Trees in Northern Finland

 

Contact: sentientforestproject@gmail.com

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