Dr. Cass Ingram — Wild-Harvest Researcher and Author
Author. Researcher. Wild-Harvest Pioneer.
Dr. Cass Ingram
Forty-plus years in the field. Thirty-plus published books. The body of work behind every Purely Wild bottle.
About Dr. Ingram
Dr. Cass Ingram (1949–2024) was one of North America's most prolific researchers and authors on wild-harvested medicinal plants. Trained in nutrition and chemistry at the University of Northern Iowa (B.S., 1979) and as an osteopathic physician, he spent more than four decades documenting how plants growing in remote, untouched terrain — Mediterranean ridges, Canadian Boreal forests, deserts of the Levant — produce active compounds that domesticated plants simply cannot replicate.
Across his career he authored more than thirty books, lectured internationally, appeared on national radio and television, and built a global readership for the idea that the best medicine grows where humans haven't been. His influence runs from naturopathic clinics to the kitchens of families who picked up The Cure is in the Cupboard in the 1990s and never went back to over-the-counter wellness.
Purely Wild Naturals is the continuation of that work. Every formula in our line traces back to a Dr. Ingram book — the species, the source region, the harvest timing, the carrier oil, the ratio. We were founded to keep his life's mission accessible, in product form, after his passing.
The wild-harvest philosophy
Dr. Ingram's central thesis, repeated across every book, is that plants exposed to real environmental stress — cold, altitude, drought, predator pressure, mineral-rich soil — generate a chemistry that farmed plants cannot. Aromatic terpenes, polyphenols, and essential-oil profiles in a wild Mediterranean oregano on a remote ridge are categorically different from the same species grown in a row crop. The field data, the lab assays, and the sensory evidence (the smell, the taste, the bite) all line up on the same conclusion.
From that thesis came the harvest standards he championed for forty years: true wild origin, remote source regions, minimal processing (no heat, no solvents where they can be avoided), traceability to species and location, and combination with carriers that preserve the volatile compounds. Those standards are the operating manual at Purely Wild.
Selected books
Dr. Ingram's most-read titles — the foundation works for the wellness traditions Purely Wild carries forward.
The Cure is in the Cupboard
The book that put oil of wild oregano on the map. Dr. Ingram's most influential title, still in print decades later, and the reference point for every oregano oil product on the market today.
The Miracle of Wild Oregano
A deeper field guide to the Mediterranean oregano harvest, the carvacrol fraction, and the multiple ways the household can use the oil daily.
Natural Cures from Wild Tree Resins
The pine, spruce, and conifer-resin work. The source text behind PineAlive and the broader pine line. Covers the proanthocyanidins, the terpenes, the shikimic acid fraction, and the Boreal vs Mediterranean species distinction.
The Health Benefits of Wild Pine Pollen
The complete pollen reference. Plant steroids, amino acid profile, the "complete food" thesis, and why springtime harvest matters. Companion volume to Tree Resins.
The Health Benefits of Wild Chaga: The King of Herbs
The Boreal birch fungus tradition. Source for our chaga line.
The Black Seed Miracle
Nigella sativa, the prophetic seed, and the cold-pressed Mediterranean oil. Source for our Black Seed Oil.
The Body Shape Diet
The endocrine-typing nutritional framework — adrenal, thyroid, pituitary — that became the basis for the Body Shape Diet formulas.
The Cure is in the Forest
The Boreal companion volume. How the cold-climate ecosystem produces a class of compounds the warmer Mediterranean does not, and why both regions matter.
Full bibliography
A non-exhaustive list of titles published under Dr. Ingram's authorship. Many remain in print through Knowledge House Publishers; others are available digitally.
The Cure is in the Cupboard
The Miracle of Wild Oregano
The Cure is in the Forest
The Health Benefits of Wild Oregano
Doctor's Guide to Oil of Wild Oregano
Wild Oregano: 101 Uses
Natural Cures from Wild Tree Resins
The Health Benefits of Wild Pine Pollen
The Health Benefits of Wild Chaga: The King of Herbs
The Black Seed Miracle
The Health Benefits of Black Seed
The Health Benefits of Raw Honey
The Health Benefits of Whole Food Turmeric
The Health Benefits of Adrenal Metabolism
The Health Benefits of Thyroid Metabolism
The Body Shape Diet
The Bone Building Miracle
The Golden Root Miracle
The Hemp Oil Miracle
The Cannabis Cure
The Lyme Disease Cure
The Infection Connection
The Respiratory Solution
The Cause for Cancer Revealed
Natural Cures for Diabetes
Natural Cures for Headaches
Natural Cures for High Blood Pressure
Natural Cures for Radiation
Natural Cures for Health Disasters
Nutrition Tests for Better Health
GMOs: The Toxic Truth
Covid-19 Remedy
Book titles referenced for bibliographic and educational purposes. Inclusion of a title does not imply that any Purely Wild product treats, cures, or prevents any disease named in a book title. See full disclaimer at the bottom of this page.
The Purely Wild legacy
When Dr. Ingram passed in 2024, the question for those of us who had built our work on his — practitioners, formulators, families who had relied on his books for decades — was simple: how do you keep a body of research alive after its author?
The answer was Purely Wild Naturals. Every product in the line is built directly from a Dr. Ingram protocol. The wild Mediterranean oregano oil is the one he formulated and recommended for forty years. The wild Boreal pine needle tea, PineAlive resin, and pine pollen are exactly the trio he describes in Natural Cures from Wild Tree Resins. The Body Shape Diet adrenal, thyroid, and pituitary formulas are the three formulations he taught. The black seed oil is sourced and pressed the way he specified.
This is not a brand inspired by Dr. Ingram. It is the house his research built, kept open and operating after him.
Products built on Dr. Ingram's research
Original Oregano Oil — Wild Mediterranean oregano, steam-distilled, the formula from The Cure is in the Cupboard.
