Q: What are Adaptogenic herbs?
A: Adaptogenic herbs are a category of herbs that help maintain overall health, and act as restorative tonics for overall balance, while increasing resistance to physical and emotional stressors.
Q: What is a Nootropic?
A: Natural nootropics are herbs and botanicals traditionally used to support cognitive function, particularly executive functions — focus, memory, creativity, or motivation — in healthy individuals.
Q: What is a Nervine herb?
A: Herbs which are known to soothe and act therapeutically on the nerves are called Nervine. These calming herbs support the nervous system, and are used to help relieve normal muscle tension and soothe the mind.
Q: Why make a glycerin-based herbal rather than alcohol-based?
A: These botanicals are made through dynamic processes, extracting heat-sensitive compounds with glycerin. This allows for more bioavailability of the organic compounds found in the herbs that would otherwise be denatured and rendered inert by alcohol. By using glycerin, a more biologically active and potent product is produced!
Q: What does “Organically Grown Herbs, Ethically Wild Harvested or Selectively Cultivated” really mean?
A: Due to legal restrictions around the word “organic”, only certified producers can use the term in marketing their product. There are many pros and cons to this, as it stands. On many levels, it protects the consumer from purchasing products that call themselves organic without actually being so. On the other hand, gaining “organic” status from the USDA doesn’t mean that pesticides and chemical fertilizers aren’t used; they just happen to be pesticides and chemical fertilizers approved for use by the government. On top of that, to gain certifications from USDA agencies can be a lengthy & costly process. So what do we mean by organically grown? It means that a commitment has been made to grow and harvest herbs using organic methods, non-GMO seeds, using no synthetic fertilizers.
Ethically wild harvested, or wildcrafted, is the practice of harvesting medicinal botanicals from their natural habitat. To do so ethically means that an effort is made to avoid over-harvesting any particular botanical in any specific region and taking clippings rather than the whole plant. Selectively cultivated botanicals are those that are grown in specific ways to promote their growth, which can include how the soil is tilled & aerated to, in the case of resins for example, how the resin is collected through the penetration of bark.