With recent research linking estrogen-progestin hormone supplements with breast cancer and heart disease, the market demand for natural alternatives such as black cohosh is rising -- and that could mean opportunity for farmers.

Andy Thomas, a horticulturist by training and a scientific detective in practice, tends thousands of black cohosh samples in "shade houses" at the University of Missouri's agricultural research station near Mount Vernon.

"There's still a lot we don't know about black cohosh, and we are searching for the answers," Thomas said. "We just think our farmers ought to be able to grow it better, with the right guidance."

Commercial cultivation of black cohosh is rare, and small-scale at that. It's a member of the buttercup family, and the flowers grow wild in a swath extending from Missouri across the southeastern United States, usually no more than about 10 flowers to a patch, Thomas said.

The root has been used for centuries for medicinal purposes. Within the last year, federally funded studies have concluded Native Americans and hill-country herbalists were on to something.

Researchers at Columbia University and The George Washington University examined the results of 29 independent studies on alternative treatments for hot flashes and found that only black cohosh appeared to work.

That review, published last November in the Annals of Internal Medicine, noted that "neither the identity of active compounds nor the mechanism of action of black cohosh is known." It also said black cohosh usually hasn't been used on a long-term basis, and that no clinical trials have lasted longer than six months.

Dr. Wulf Utian, executive director of the North American Menopause Society and a gynecologist at the Cleveland Clinic, said the Missouri research of growing black cohosh and analyzing it, could benefit patients yearning for more information.

"There may be within the black cohosh an active ingredient that may be isolated, extracted and identified, and undergo appropriate testing according to FDA guidelines. The far bigger and most important issue is how is it tested in humans for safety and efficacy," Utian said.

Dee Adams says she hears from menopausal women who would gladly join a clinical trial.

"For some women, menopause is just hellish -- such an onslaught of so many changes, which is why it's called 'The Change,' because it's awful," said Adams, 55, an Oxford, Mich., woman who teaches laughter as the best menopause medicine, using her online cartoon character, Minnie Pauz.

Black cohosh is among the most frequently mentioned alternatives for women visiting her Web site, Adams said.

"It's something that has been out there for years and years, so that is the buzz I hear -- it's been used for so long, give it a try," she said.

It is sold in various commercial permutations. At Clover's Natural Market in Columbia, Bruce Topping said his shelves have a variety of black cohosh capsules -- a pinch of the flower root blended with other components -- and "it is a popular seller." Clover's gets $8.50 for a container with 100 capsules, each about 500 milligrams.

Black cohosh isn't easy to find in the wild. Most of the flowers are found in the shade of dense woods, in rocky soil with good drainage. Thomas said there is an active market in "poaching" the flowers from national and state forests, which can lead to fewer natural specimens.

At the research center, the "shade houses" are long structures with roofs covered by special fabric of varying densities, all to simulate stages of shade and sunlight. Thomas is keeping tabs on how the black cohosh flowers develop under assorted conditions, and those flowers and findings will be sent to the University of Missouri-Columbia for further lab research. The black cohosh project is just a part of alternative medicine research under way at the university, much of it financed by federal funds.

"If we find a particular chemical in the root is of interest medicinally, maybe I want to grow my crop to harvest more of that. It may be that some plants under stress -- meaning exposed to more sun -- will produce more of a certain chemical," Thomas said.

Rieva Lesonsky, editorial director of Entrepreneur magazine, said the Missouri research is targeting a slice of the baby-boom market on the upswing. The magazine estimates more than 4,000 boomers start menopause each day.

"The more people harvest it, the more frequently you'll see it outside of health food stores and the more demand grows," Lesonsky said. "It's a hot market."