Herbal Supplements – New Technology For Better Products
Kwan H Lo
Herbal supplements have many health benefits. Many of them are
potent antioxidants. Some have antiviral, antifungal,
antibacterial, and antitumor properties. Some improve general
bodily functions such as digestion, mental clarity,
circulation, hormonal balance, etc. Many people also consume
herbal supplements to prevent and treat common ailments and
improve the overall well beings.
Herbal supplements contain active constituents extracted from
dry or fresh herbs. These active constituents can be divided
into two main groups based on their chemical properties,
hydrophilic (water loving) and lipophilic (oil loving).
Traditionally, hydrophilic compounds are extracted in water and
ethanol whereas lipophilic compounds are extracted in chemical
solvents such as acetone and hexane.
The use of chemical solvents in extracting lipophilic compounds
has raised some health, environmental and safety concerns in
recently years. First of all, there is a small amount of toxic
residues left after the extraction process, which can pose a
health threat to the consumers. Secondly, the disposal of
organic solvents is detrimental to the environment. And lastly,
these chemical solvents are toxic and highly volatile, handling
of these chemicals require extreme caution.
Unfortunately, the major active constituents in many herbs such
as ginger, St. John’s Wort, valerian, rosemary are lipophilic.
In the past, they were extracted by organic solvents such as
acetone and hexane. But the advance in new technologies has
provided safer alternative to the food industry. Supercritical
fluid extraction is one of these new technologies. It allows
health food manufacturers to produce cleaner, more potent and
stable herbal products.
Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) using carbon dioxide (CO2)
is an improved extraction method. Carbon dioxide is non-toxic,
non-explosive and can be readily removed from the finished
products and recycled. It does not pose any hazardous problems
to the environment. The extraction takes place without high
temperature heating and boiling so the extracted products are
more stable. In addition, the extraction yields a highly
concentrated herbal extract.
In comparison, chemical extraction using organic solvents
leaves adsorbed chemical residues in the finished products. The
solvents may react with the active compounds and degrade them.
To remove the solvents from the extracted products, high
temperature heating is required, which may degrade the active
constituents. As a result, the quality of the extracted
products is generally inferior to that from supercritical fluid
extraction.
The commercial application of supercritical fluid technology is
still limited to few high valued products due to high investment
costs and new operation. New chapter is one premium brand
producing herbal and fatty acid supplements using this new
technology. With the increasing public demand of purer, cleaner
nutritional supplements, one may assume that more companies
would be applying this new extraction technology in the near
future.
About The Author: Kwan H Lo is the owner of
http://vitaminstores.4reviews.net
, an online site providing
information on health food supplements.
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