SFI Health
Medicines with natural active ingredients: Every step counts

Medicines with natural active ingredients: Every step counts

When medicines with natural active ingredients are made, the details of the end-to-end production process can make a big difference to their health effects.

Clinical insight
Reading time: 3 minutes

From source to patient — let us take you on the journey

How you get from a natural plant to a finished product doesn’t really matter, does it?
 
Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. Growth, cultivation, extraction and manufacturing processes are key to help deliver a consistent medicine that can be tested in clinical studies for health outcomes.
 
When you think about just how much the process matters, it becomes a whole lot more interesting.
 

Six crucial steps and why they can matter

Chardonnay or shiraz?
 
Regardless of whether you enjoy a glass of wine, you’ll know that every wine drinker has a preference. And that’s because the specific type of grape that a wine is made from can have a huge impact on its flavour. Just like grape varieties, not all plant species used to make medicines with naturally sourced active ingredients are the same. That’s why SFI Health' integrative medicines are made from carefully selected plant species that often have a history of success.
 
Sun or snow?
 
As much as we might like to, we can’t control the weather to suit ourselves. And like us, plants can behave differently in different climates and conditions. Many factors can affect the growth and composition of a plant, depending on what matters, many of the ingredients in SFI Health medicines are grown in carefully selected environments, required for optimal growth. Plus the levels of active compounds within a plant may change over their growing season, so the time of year the plants are harvested can also have an impact.
 
Root or leaf?
 
In every plant, different parts can contain very different components. When different vegetable plants are harvested, some are collected for their roots or leaves, and others are gathered for their stems, flowers or fruits, for example. This kind of selection is also taken into account when producing a the natural active ingredient of a medicine, because the very specific components that may have an effect on the body might be present only in one part of the plant, or in all of it. It can vary from plant to plant. So it’s important to take great care to consistently use the part of the plant that is known to have beneficial effects on the body in clinical research.
 
Exact or extract? Strict or standard solvent?
 
With SFI Health integrative medicines, extraction processes are used to help ensure that each batch of medicine has the precise ingredient, compound, or mix of compounds, that has been tested in clinical research. This is usually achieved by using carefully selected liquids (known as solvents) that draw out extracts and help deliver the consistent amount and composition of active compounds. Taking care to get the same level of success in each batch of natural medicine, helps deliver consistency you can rely on.
 
Plane or car?
 
A lot can happen when you travel from A to B, so a lot of thought has gone into this with SFI Health medicines. We never stop caring about our products, so strict controls are followed for storing and transporting finished products. This helps ensure that the pack gets to you in a high quality condition — just like when it left the front door.
 
Science or fiction?
 
There’s no doubt that fiction can be fun. But when it’s fact that you desire, science is what you can rely on. SFI Health integrative medicines undergo carefully conducted clinical studies to help ensure that they can deliver health benefits. This means that the claims you see on our packs and on our website have been objectively and scientifically validated so you can feel more confident about their health outcomes.  
 
 

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