How our herbal tinctures are made... from field to bottle

Fresh Tinctures | How the herbs are turned into tinctures| Why different varieties of strength | GMP and production harvesting methods

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Fresh Tinctures

75% of the herbs used in our products are grown in fertile Englist fields and the majority of these are harvested and processed fresh. Even when they are purchased in Europe they are frequently flown in overnight after harvesting during the day.

Fresh vs. Dry As Nicholas Culpeper pointed out in the seventeenth century, the best herbs are those picked green and full of juice, although they are not the best for drying and keeping. This therefore presented something of a dilemna, three centuries ago.

In the modern age, the comparison of the qualities of rehydrated, dehydrated vegetable food with those of fresh vegetables seems the most obvious question to consider in this regard. The answer to that matter is one of unanimous verdict of both lay and scientific opinion. Yet, because the origins of the (eventually Royal) Pharmaceutical Society lay in the analysis of the exotic dried herbs that came to London at the height of the British Empire, so until very recently the texts continue to slavishly and unquestioningly continue to labour it’s out of date and illogical conclusions.

Many herbalists would be surprised to know that the origins of the pharmaceutical industry lay in the belief that dried herbs are more useful than fresh herbs because they must be 'more chemically concentrated'. In fact, modern science now realises that most plants potentiate their biological activity by high organised and extraordinarily complex ecological adaptations, which generally, are applicable to their use in medicine. (For more detail, see research publication: Microemulsions in Herbal Tinctures). These systems largely depend on protein complexes that are dependant on water for their structural integrity. Although drying herbs allows them to be kept in a dry state for long periods of time (as is required for the purposes of commerce), this method of preservation depends upon the process of 'denaturing', or destroying, the very subtle web of physical phyto-chemical structures that evolution has created over countless millennia in order to enhance biological activity. Life is not designed to protect dead tissues.

How the herbs are turned into tinctures - Traditional Extraction methods

We use traditional macerations methods because the literature shows that these make the best quality extracts. Percolation was plainly an economic invention designed to increase the manufacturer’s margins that is a rapid extraction process that takes the herb to the point called “exhaustion”. It is noteworthy that the British Pharmacopoeia require that (a) percolation is preceded by maceration and (b) is in order to get the correct strength is followed by concentration by boiling! Modern herbal science would not normally approve of boiling because of the damage done to the herbal complexes. For this reason, therefore, we do not support methods dependent purely on percolation.

Instead we use an adaption of the traditional practice of daily shaking, that we call our 'rolling barrel method'. Macerated barrel are simply rolled through 180° every day for a period of many weeks to ensure even mixing as the active micro-structures are released.

Why different varieties of strengths?

At Herbs Hands Healing we aim for strong products in order to make robust changes to achieve the best possible health results.

For example our Echinacea root tincture has a strength of 1:1 (1 part echinacea to 1 part extraction base - lower strengths being 1:3 or even 1:5 as they are more diluted). This delievers a tincture this is competent at dealing with virus and bacteria. Lower strength and doses in our opinion are not adequately able to do so. Some high street outlets sell non-organic 1:5 strength echinacea tincture at a retail price, only a little below ours, at a dose we would consider inadequate.

We use the root of the echinacea plant as opposed to the cheaper leaf and flower, which can be found on the market. The root is responsible for the tingling sensation experienced when taking the tincture and it is a sign of its high quality. We also produce organically and bio-dynamically as we feel this non-pollutive production method is vital for medicinal purposes.

GMP and Production Harvesting Methods

GMP is basic common manufacturing sense formalised into an international pharmaceutical convention covering every aspect of 'current good manufacturing practise' and its consequent 'quality assurance'. It formalises and assures those things that any manufacturer ought to be doing at the very least. cGMP is therefore a minimum legal base line defining fitness of goods to be released to the market. cGMP is a testing system that does not raise quality, but sets a minimum level.

GMP quality is about checks and balances to ensure that the systems a company uses to make and distribute herbal products is fit for purpose and is rigorously applied and followed.

cGMP controls starting materials, intermediates and finished goods.

GMP is an entirely pharmaceutical system, based on chemical principles. As is stated in the European Pharmacopoeia, herbs are special examples of active ingredients and it is the whole herb and not chemical components that define the quality. Therefore, it is hard to show that GMP improves 'quality’ in any sense that herbalists normally use the word to us.

This is because we understand that herbal quality remains dependant on the quality of the herbs used at the start and that is not something that chemistry adequately defines. Nevertheless, it is comforting to know that GMP is adhered to and that a license for competant practice to create the tinctures is granted by the department of health.

Harvesting

The correct time for harvesting is determined by a farmers feel for time and weather together with scientific testing carried out by bio-chemists upon testing for significant levels of particular medicinal plant compounds.