Concentration Ratios and
Our Optimally-Extracted Formulas
There is much confusion as to how concentration ratios are expressed and what they mean. First, let us discuss the common understanding and its shortcomings.
Some manufacturers use a source-herb to finished-product ratio. For example, if 5 kg of herbs are used to make 1 kg of herb concentrate that would be considered to be a 5:1 concentrate. On first assessment one would think that the higher the ratio the more potent the concentrate. However, an examination of the process used to concentrate herbs reveals that creating an effective concentrate relies on many more factors than just the amount of herbs placed in the extraction vat. In fact, there is an optimal amount of herbs that should be in a given amount of water to get the best extract. If more than that are used it can result in a lower potency.
The reason for this is that when herbs are decocted certain ingredients are released quickly and others are released slowly. The timing of these releases are dependent on factors such as temperature and the nature of the solute (all water, part alcohol, etc.) and the herb being processed. For example, an herb that contains a large amount of starchy materials (generally, intercellular material) will release that into solution and that will coat and block-up the herb material that remains, thus making it more difficult for the intracellular (inside the cells) ingredients to enter into solution. If a smaller amount of herbs is used, this thick obstructing material will be minimized, hence a larger variety of ingredients can enter into solution. Also, if the ingredients that are quickly released into solution fill the available space in the solute (the liquid used for extraction) this supersaturates the solution leaving little room for the more slowly released ingredients.
From this we can conclude that there is an ideal ratio of water-to-herb used to get a well-balanced and effective extract. Exceeding that amount of herbs may give a very high extraction ratio but a very poor extraction. Furthermore, the process, including cooking temperature, volume of solute, cooking time and so on can have a marked effect on the way certain ingredients are released into solution. Manipulation of these factors along with the optimum herb-to-solute ratio can lead to an herb extract that is unmatched. So, in fact a 3:1 ratio can produce a better extract than a 10:1 ratio. The optimum ratio is the one that derives the best mix of ingredients in the largest quantity possible.
Our manufacturer is dedicated to producing the most effective extract possible with the technology that is currently available. They manipulate all the extraction factors and then measure for extraction effectiveness using HPLC detection for known ingredients. The process is tweaked until the best procedure and herb to solute ratio is ascertained and that becomes the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for that product.
Because each product has a different optimal herb extraction ratio and because herb extraction ratios are inherently misleading we simply refer to our products as optimally extracted. For those who like numbers, we have found that for our products an extraction ratio ranging from 4:1 to 7:1 gives the best extraction. We prefer to refer to this as an Optimal Extraction because that is what we are trying to achieve.