What makes some herbs and botanical products so utilised and useful are often their active compounds (often present in low percentages).
For example, the active ingredient of Turmeric is curcumin, those of bilberry are anthocyanidins and those of ginger are gingerols.
Often these active compounds can express their biological benefits and activities only when administered in quite high doses. Unfortunately this could cause issues for the tablets’ manufacturer. To ensure a good quantity of the active compound, the tablets should contain a high quantity and weight of the original herbs, making the tablets large and impossible to swallow.
To avoid this problem herbal extracts are often used, through chemical procedures the active compounds are concentrated. This is the best method to guarantee the quality of the product for the clients and to guarantee the consistency of the products from batch to batch. Finally thanks to this method the tablets have normal dimensions and can be easily swallowed.
Standardised extracts have an extract ratio which is calculated as a result of a unique active compound or group of compounds in the original herb against the final extract. A 10:1 extract ratio has 10 times the unique active compound as the original herb in DRIED form.
Herbal Extracts used as supplements in the tablets are often standardised. It is the standardised value often used in marketing, to show the amount of original herb used. Because different products contain different strength extracts this is the best-calculated figure for comparison. For example, 100mg of a 10:1 is 1000mg standardised, 20mg of a 50:1 is 1000mg standardised, so the different strength extracts can equate to the same standardised strength.
To clarify standardisation, some products offered by OV are taken in consideration below:
Bilberry
We have chosen to offer in each Bilberry tablet, 25% of anthocyanidins, the active compounds of Bilberry. However after water has been removed from Bilberry’s, the dried fruit contains around only 0.25% anthocyanidins. For this reason a process of extraction is carried out with the aim to concentrate the amount of anthocyanidins and to make it 25%.
Because of the level of 25% is 100 times higher than the natural content of 0.25% in dried Bilberries, we would therefore term this as a 100:1 ratio extract.
Our product contains 20 mg of Vaccinium myrtillus, but because we have used a 100: 1 extract this is equal to a standardized amount of 2000 mg. This means that the product that we offer delivers the same amount of anthocyanidins as 2000 mg of the dried fruits.
Turmeric
The active compound of Turmeric, as cited above is curcumin.
Thanks to using a 50:1 extract, in each tablet we offer 50 mg of Curcuma longa. Of this 50 mg, 45 mg are represented by curcumin. This quantity of curcumin corresponds to what is present in 2500 mg of the original product.
Ginger
The active compounds of ginger are gingerols. Normally 1000 mg of Zingiber officinale contains 2.5 mg of Gingerols. However because of we use a 20:1 extract we are able to put 50 mg of Zingiber officinale in each tablet. Of this 50 mg, 2.5 mg are represented by Gingerols. The strength of 50 mg of our extract is the same of that of 1000 mg of Zingiber officinale in its dried form.
Green Tea
Thanks to using a 25:1 extract we are able to put in each tablet 40 mg of Camellia sinensis. However the strength of this extract corresponds to the strength of 1000 mg of normal leaves. Of this 40 mg of Camellia sinensis, 38 mg are represented by poliphenols that are the active compounds in green tea.
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