Plant extracts Supplements manufacturing

Herbal extracts Supplements manufacturing

Plant extracts Supplements manufacturing

Quality assurance of scienceherb

For thousands of years, herbs have been used, studied, and celebrated for their therapeutic properties.

Scienceherb’s top priority is ensuring the safety of our herbal products. Herbs and Herbal Extracts’ Quality Standards including: the herb’s exterior, color and grain, taste, odor, mesh size, density, solubility, qualitative and quantitative analysis for bioactive components/maker compounds, loss on drying, residue on ignition, heavy metal, pesticide residue, microbiological analysis, identification for possible adulteration content, etc. In order to comply with that strict quality standard, Scienceherb set up Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) at each stage. Only batches that passed through our rigorous testing standards and inspection processes can be released.

Scienceherb focusing on the manufacture and production of plant herbal extract raw materials. Combined with our research results on plant functions, we provide high-quality all-natural raw materials and application solutions for the nutrition and health, dietary supplement, and personal care industries.

How to make good Extracts products

Extracts Raw Materials SOP

The raw materials’ quality vary a lot based upon their variety, growing conditions, growth age, used party, preparation method, stock conditions, etc., it all affect the bioactive components in it. In order to ensure a consistent and stable extracts quality, it’s essential to normalized Raw Materials SOP. Key points including:

  • Extracts Species Authentication
    Authentication is the determination of the correct species, origin and quality of Chinese herbs. Scienceherb’s authentication process aims to prevent the use of inauthentic herbs, whether by mistaken identification or the substitution of imitation products.
  • Extracts Growing Conditions
    TCM herbalism emphasizes Di Dao theory throughout. Dao Di herb has been defined as premium herb for being produced in specific geographic regions with particular attention to cultivation and processing techniques since Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 C.E.) for long history, such as Bai Shao (Bai Shao/White Peony of Bozhou), Huai Di Huang (Di Huang/Rehmannia of ancient huaiqing, Henan), Ningxia Gou Qi (Gou Qi/Lycium Fruit of Ningxia).
  • Extracts Growth Age & Used Party
    Herbs that being collected before mature can cause low quality largely. Such as Astragalus, traditionally the best one should bearound 5~6 years old with a diameter of 2~3cm, and the used party is root. Herbs using it’s barks such as Eucommia should be around 10~15 years old with thickness of 3~6cm.
  • Extracts Hygienic Security
    Each batch of herbs should go through strict hygienic security testing before go ahead. Scienceherb takes a comprehensive testing approach including: ●Sulfur Dioxide Detection ●Pesticide Residuals Detection ●Aflatoxin Detection ●Heavy Metal

Extracts Extraction Process SOP

Unlike synthetic chemicals/drugs, the composition in herbs is far more complex, therefore herbal extracts are usually the mixture of one or several categories of components. It’s the herbal extracts’ multi-components characteristic determines it’s pharmacologic action’s multiple target point, thus to keep human body in a balanced health as a whole. It’s obviously unreasonable to judge the quality by a certain maker compound. The mission of Extraction Process SOP is to maintain such comprehensive quality stability. Key points including:

  • Herbal Preparation
    Once the best herbs are selected, they are cleaned and prepared according to a protocol customized for that herb. Dirt and other foreign materials are meticulously removed, and the herbs are then sliced or prepared with traditional pao zhi methods before being extracted. Different Pao Zhi Methods (preparation methods) can make herb quality vary a lot.
  • Extraction & Concentration
    Different herbs may have different characteristic and thus should take different extraction process. For most herbs we only use the purified water as extraction solvent. The precise extraction temperature and timing are unique to each herb and strictly controlled. Especially for herbs that contains heat sensitive components, low-temperature process can preserve the potency of the herbal extract’s potency that would otherwise damaged under extended exposure to high temperatures.
  • Essential Oil Restoration
    One very important process that most factories skip involves the collection of aromatic oils from herbs, which are usually the bioactive components. Scienceherb’s patented essential oil retrieval system using an “oil trap” connected to the extraction system to capture and preserve the volatile oils. They are blended back into the extracts at the end of the process. Essential oils increase efficacy and infuse the herbs with their natural aroma.
  • Spray-Drying
    The concentrated liquid extracts are dried by using an ultra high speed spray dryer. During this process, the liquid herbal concentration is automized into fine droplets, which are thrown radially into a moving stream of hot gas. The temperature of the droplets is immediately increases and fine droplets get dried instantaneously in the spherical particles. The whole drying process completes in a few seconds and maximally remain herbal potency.

Finished Product Testing SOP

Testing result can be different due to different testing method, equipments, and sample preparation, etc. Thus standard testing procedure is necessary to get a consistent results for herbal extracts. High-precision laboratory tests check multiple samples from each batch to measure the potency and to establish the safety of the product. These tests include the following:

  • UV/HPLC/UPLC-MS-MS to measure key bioactive ingredients.
  • FFETTM (Fingerprint Full-Spectrum Extract Technology) to judge extract’s inherent quality
  • AAS/ICP-MS to test heavy metals.
  • GC-MS-MS to ensure safety by testing for the presence of pesticide residuals.
  • Microbiological assays to screen for E. coli, salmonella and various other possible bio-contaminants such as molds or yeasts
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