“This advanced extraction process yields a superior herbal extract that is highly concentrated...”
By
now everyone has heard about plant “polyphenols” and essential oils,
and people just assume that when they take an herb they are getting all
of the herb’s beneficial constituents. People also assume that herbal
extracts are pretty much the same, like bottled water or jars of
applesauce. Maybe, people think, there could be some slight flavor
variations, but water is generally water and applesauce is applesauce.
But these are profoundly incorrect assumptions for traditional herbs,
for the beneficial effects of an herbal extract depend on a number of
important and precise factors, starting with the quality of the fresh
botanical ingredient.
Some fresh ginger, for example, is rather
bland, while other rhizomes just explode with pungent compounds and
proteolytic enzymes. A great extract thus starts with great fresh
herbs, but it doesn’t end there, no more than a fine wine starts and
ends with the grape. After all, there are different growers, different
fermenting processes, different alcohol levels, and vastly different
tastes. These differences make a huge difference in wine, and they make
an even bigger difference in botanical extracts used in traditional
medicine.
New Chapter deeply respects the importance of the herb
and of the extraction process. We have developed a unique,
patent-pending line of the finest botanical formulations available, and
these therapeutic formulations all feature what scientists call the
“supercritical” extraction process. This advanced extraction process
yields a superior herbal extract that is highly concentrated, as much
as 250 pounds of fresh herb reducing to just one pound of supercritical
extract. In addition, the supercritical process does not use any
chemical solvents at all, so the resulting extract is absolutely free
of chemical solvents such as hexane or acetone. The supercritical
process also produces an extremely broad representation of the herb’s
lipophilic (oils, fatty acids, etc.) constituents.
Those
lipophilic constituents are often some of the most precious and
necessary plant ingredients in such important herbs as ginger, St.
John’s Wort, evening primrose, saw palmetto, kava, valerian, rosemary,
and many others. In the past these herbs were commonly extracted by the
use of chemical solvents. Not so with supercritical extraction. New
Chapter’s supercritical extracts are super potent, super pure, and
broad spectrum with a representative composition very near to the
botanical raw material. These are the hallmarks of New Chapter’s
supercritical extraction.
The supercritical process is
extraordinarily complex and high-tech, but at its core we think it is
rather easy to understand. Here is a short “botany” lesson: there are
two major groupings of phytochemicals, or plant constituents, that are
generally extracted. One type of plant constituent “likes” water, and
is thus willing to be dissolved in water (like in making a tea, which
is simply a hot water extract) or a related solution like ethanol. The
other type of plant constituent “dislikes” water, avoids it totally
(like oil and water!), and is thus unwilling to be dissolved in it.
These water-avoiding constituents are fatty or oily in nature, and they
are willing to dissolve only in “lipophilic” or fat-loving solutions.
To extract an “oily” constituent, people conventionally either
dissolved the herb in a chemical solvent or heated the herb to beyond
boiling, evaporating out the water-based ingredients. That is the sum
and substance of conventional extraction: a water-loving constituent
either can be dissolved in a water or alcohol solution, or it is fatty
or oily and needs to be dissolved in a different manner. We should note
that some lipophilic substances can be extracted with ethanol, but it
is not the preferred extraction method for those substances.
The
conventional ways were generally acceptable, if done well by caring
extractors with premier ingredients, so long as the constituent to be
extracted was “water loving.” There are some serious problems, however,
with conventional, non-supercritical, “lipophilic” extraction. Most
importantly, the chemical solvents often used for such “conventional”
extraction can be rather nasty. If you have a grease stain on your
clothing, that greasy stain is “lipophilic,” and a good dry cleaning
solvent like hexane can extract the grease. Water won’t work, because
the grease repels the water. Using a dry cleaning solvent is perhaps
acceptable for dry cleaning, although it is obviously not the best for
our environment. What is clear, however, is that we don’t want to be
eating dry cleaning solvents. If those chemical solvents are used for
conventional herbal extraction, one of four unacceptable things may
occur: First, there could be some residue of the chemical solvent.
Second, to try to get rid of the chemical residue, the extract is often
heated to high enough temperatures to break down the solvent. Third,
the solvent interacts with the plant constituents and can distort them.
For example, when chemical solvents are used to make a ginger extract,
the solvents interact with the important “gingerol” constituents and
can degrade some into less desirable “shogaols.” Fourth, the lipophilic
constituents can be highly unstable when extracted with chemical
solvents. For example, the principal active constituents of St. John’s
Wort, which are the hyperforins that promote emotional balance, are
highly unstable if conventionally extracted. To illustrate what “highly
unstable” means, think of it as purchasing a shiny new car, but by the
time you get it home the metal has turned to rust. When the hyperforins
“rust,” their value is lost to us.
The conventional process, then, creates a lipophilic extract that often
- has some chemical solvent residue,
- has been temperature stressed,
- can distort or alter the nature of the delicate plant constituents, or
- can create an extract that is biologically unstable.
The supercritical process does not present any of these issues.
Rather than using a chemical solvent as the “dissolving fluid,” the
supercritical process uses compressed carbon dioxide, or CO2. That is
simply one of the constituents of normal air, and we breathe it and
plants absorb it every moment. To get the CO2 to dissolve the
lipophilic constituents, scientists determined that the gas would
extract those substances if the gas was highly compressed. We mean
very, very compressed, such as 200 to 500 times the pressure of the
atmosphere at sea level. Normally, if you compress a gas to that extent
it would turn to a liquid, but the liquid form of gases do not
“penetrate” or dissolve as well, and thus is not the best substance for
dissolving the plant oils and other lipophilic substances. Here is
where the term “critical” comes in. The “critical” point of a gas is
that temperature point over which the gas will maintain its gaseous
state and not turn to a liquid. In the case of CO2, the critical point
is 31 degrees centigrade, which is not that high. If the CO2 gas is
heated up to any temperature over 31 degrees C (which would be over, or
“super” the “critical” point), then it will not turn to a liquid no
matter what the pressure. Scientists use CO2 gas for this purpose
because it is totally harmless (even when compressed) to humans and the
environment, it is naturally occurring, and its “supercritical”
temperature point is very low.
The supercritical process, then,
uses a harmless, natural gas, heats it to some temperature over 31
degrees C (the lower the better to avoid any temperature stress), and
the gas is then highly compressed. The compressed gas has the density
of a liquid, but is able to penetrate deeply into the plant and
dissolve the lipophilic constituents. Then the pressure is carefully
released, the gas just harmlessly dissipates into the atmosphere, and
all that is left behind is the pure, concentrated extract. No
pollution, no heat stress or damage, and no solvent residue. The
extract, if done by a fine laboratory or facility, can be a broad,
virtually complete representation of the plant’s lipophilic
constituents.
Not every herb or plant constituent is suitable
for supercritical extraction, but for those that are it clearly yields
the most concentrated, broad-spectrum, and pure extract possible. For
some herbal constituents, like for certain phytochemicals in green tea,
a water extract is preferred.
Other herbs or constituents
require an ethanolic extraction, which is not a chemical solvent and if
used properly can be a valuable adjunct to other extraction processes.
We at New Chapter are familiar with all of these extraction methods,
and we know how to take advantage of the multiple processes to create
an extract that will have the desired broad-spectrum constituents
delivered in the purest fashion. Our Supercritical Therapy™ line of
products is patent-pending and often uses both supercritical and other
extraction processes on the same herb, which we call a “Dual Extract.”
Our Supercritical Therapy™ products thus represent not only the finest
formulas and ingredients, but also extraction methodologies based on
the unsurpassed values of a supercritical extract.
*This
statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any
disease.
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not to diagnose or treat any medical condition.