What are standardized herbs?
Although herbs have a long history of use for medicinal purposes, it is only recently that they have been analyzed to reveal their most active components. These active chemicals are commonly present in very variable amounts in herbs, depending on where and how they are grown, soil quality, when they are harvested, the amount of rain and sun, and other factors. Standardized herbs have guaranteed specific amounts of the known, active herbal components, as well as the other factors that might be of help but are not as well studied.
The U.S. herbal marketplace has seen the introduction of a number of “standardized” botanical extracts. The purpose of standardization is commonly believed to be control of the content of one or several “marker” compounds (29), which are perceived of as those constituents in the plant that are responsible for its therapeutic activity. In fact, standardization – when properly performed – entails a lot more than merely controlling the content of a particular marker compound. Rather, standardization consists of the body of information and manufacturing steps that ensure product consistency from one batch to the next. As such, it comprises a wide variety of raw material and process controls, as well as use of a consistent recipe. The goal in standardizing an extract is to control the complete chemical composition of the extract, rather than one particular identified constituent or group of constituents. The heightened interest in standardized products is due to the belief that standardizat
