Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Thanks. I wish they had more detail as to their sources and the form of the herbs. I assume they are talking about RAW herbs, not powdered granules and not extracts. Be sure to find out what form you will be getting.
For instance, the licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) may come as bits of bark and twigs for a tea. I can't find a link explaining what form they are so, I assume, they are rough cut and raw - deemed "CRUDE" form.
Their certification seems current but it would be good to know their sources, too. A simple phone call can answer some questions.
Herbs come in many different forms. The most common are crude herbs, powders, dried decoctions, tinctures, capsules, gelcaps, salves, oils and teas.
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* CRUDE HERBS are simply collected and dried, then cut and sifted. This is the original way herbs have been prepared since the dawn of time.
This form is commonly found in traditional herb shops around the world, and in ethnic neighborhoods in major cities in the United States.
The advantage of this form is that you can actually see, taste and smell the herbs. Crude herbs are usually taken home and cooked into teas.
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* POWDERS are simply ground crude herbs. You can use powders to make herbal tea, or simply ingest them in their natural form. I like powders because they allow you to experience the taste and smell of the herbs you are using.
Another benefit of this form is that you can often take larger doses of the herbs. However, powdered herbs do not last as long in storage as the other forms.
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* TEAS are aqueous extractions of crude herbs or herbal powders. Most herbs today come in pills or tinctures, so to make sure we do not forget our herbal roots, I always make sure to keep some loose herb teas in the house.
There are several methods of preparation for herbal tea. Infusion, better for delicate leaves and flowers, entails bringing water to a light boil, turning off the heat, and letting the herbs steep in the water.
Leaving the crude herbs out in the sun for a couple of hours in a tightly sealed container makes Sun tea. Simmering the herbs for anywhere from ten minutes up to an hour (longer is better for the much heavier barks and roots) makes a decoction.
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* TINCTURES are extracts made by soaking herbs in solutions designed to draw out their virtues. Alcohol is the most common soaking solution for tinctures. Tincture manufacturers must have recipe books to guide them, as the exact method will differ for each herb.
Tinctures are valuable because they are easy to digest and absorb. Some herbs can only be used in this form. The strength of a tincture should be listed on the bottle in the form of a ratio, such as 1:5 or 1:2.
The first number tells you how much of the herb is present, and the second number tells you how much menstruum (the liquid used to dissolve the herb) is in the preparation. Therefore, a 1:5 tincture is weaker than a 1:2 tincture, because a larger volume of liquid is used.
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* DRIED DECOCTIONS, also called CONCENTRATED GRANULES, are used primarily by Chinese (TCM) herbalists. This method of preparing herbs was devised several decades ago in Taiwan by a group of chemists and traditional doctors.
Basically, the herbs are cooked as teas in large vats and the solid residues are removed, after which the remaining liquids are dried out until only powders remain. Sometimes certain important components (such as volatile oils) are collected separately by specialized equipment and then added back to the final product.
These powders are usually about four times more potent than the crude herbs. The label may list a ratio of 4:1, but concentration can be as low as 2:1 or even as high as 10:1.
Dried decoctions still retain the herbs' basic tastes and smells, and the concentrations of chemicals discourage bacterial growth so they tend to store well. I use these granules frequently in my practice.
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* CONCENTRATED HERBAL EXTRACTS are now made using various methods. These extracts, in liquid or solid form, can be anywhere from two to 100 times more concentrated in certain components than crude herbs.
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* CAPSULES are simply powdered herbs, dried decoctions or concentrated herbal extracts that have been put into gelatin capsules.
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* TABLETS are simply powdered herbs, dried decoctions or concentrated herbal extracts with a binding substance added. They are then are pressed into tablets by a machine
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* GELCAPS are sealed gelatin capsules that hold either tinctures or concentrated liquid herbal extracts.
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The book, HEALING LYME, by Buhner is also an excellent source in understanding the nature of herbs and the difference in forms.
A synergistic formula of 6 rainforest botanicals which are traditionally used in South America for syphilis (a type of spirochete bacteria) and other bacterial conditions.* This product was featured in an article by the Health Sciences Institute (see page 4).
ITM - Chinese Medicine research site - They have good articles regarding "SAFETY" & "INTERACTION" -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- P.S. Ohhh, looking at that again - in the left hand blue column, there is some shorthand indicating form. My eyes just spaz out with the white print on the dark background and I totally missed it.
For instance, licorice root c/s (means cut and sifted). Some of the others say powder but that is not clear as to if powdered raw or extract. My guess is that "powder" means ground up raw herbs - as if it were a stronger extract it would say so and cost more. Raw herbs are less expensive.
Going deeper into their site, I do see that they mark extracts. For intstance: Acerola berry extract powder, 4:1
For some herbs, the raw/crude forms are fine. For others, we may need the stronger formulas that an extract provides. -
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