Plant transformation processes

The processes by which medicinal plants are transformed into herbal products have often remained unaltered despite the passing of the centuries.

Science and technology, however, have made notable contributions to improving the quality of these products. At one time all plants were gathered from the wild.

Today most of them are cultivated and the phases of drying, selection and conservation make use of advanced technologies that will ensure product quality and effectiveness.

The plants are always gathered during a period of the year called the plants'balsamic time.

After gathering, the part of the plant is selected that is most aromatic and richest in active principles (leaves, fruit, seeds, bark, root, etc., sometimes the entire plant) or the substances responsible for the salutary effect on the organism.
The selected product may be used fresh or, as often happens, dried. The drying process is necessary to prevent fermentation of the parts gathered and to conserve them, particularly when these are transported long distances or used during a season when the plants are at rest. It used to happen, for instance, for spices like pepper, cinnamon, camphor and coffee, that they were only able to travel for months in the holds of ships without deteriorating if they were in a dried state.

The term drug comes from the practice of drying plants, as the Middle Dutch word drog meant 'dry'. Even today, the American terms 'drugstore' and 'druggist' are derived from the old terms referring to the place and person responsible for the sale of spices. In the original meaning of the term, the 'drugs' were the parts of the plant that had undergone the drying process, for example the bark of cinnamon or the fruit of pepper, and in which the active principles were concentrated.
Plants could be dried naturally in the open air, or closed in dry, airy environments out of sunlight, or, as happens today, in special ovens. Once dried, the 'drugs' are ready for use, whether in cooking or to produce herbal preparations.

Aboca, a world leader in the preparation of medicinal herbs, uses state-of-the-art equipment in the following transformation processes of medicinal plants into health products.
The start of the cycle is the cultivation of officinal plants over hundreds of hectares using organic methods.
These are based on the plants' natural growing rhythms and the body of European regulations that govern the practice.
Harvesting is mechanised and uses specially designed machines. The harvested plants are then threshed mechanically to separate the various parts of the plants.
These parts are then subjected to a flow of dehydrated air in ovens at a temperature that varies between 32 and 40°C.
The duration of the process depends on the consistency of the part to be dried: longer for roots, shorter for flowers. Cutting reduces the dried product to the right size (cut leaves, powders, etc.) depending on whether it will be used directly or mixed with other products.

The purpose of mixing different products is to take advantage of the synergy created between their therapeutic properties. The packaging of individual or mixed products takes place exclusively in vacuum conditions to ensure the stability of the product for long periods through the absence of oxidising or polluting agents.

One part of the product has the purpose of extracting active principles from the whole (the 'phytocomplex') using hydroalcoholic solutions and respecting the most suitable proportions of drug to solvent. The products given off are in liquid form and called hydroalcoholic extracts. Dried plant extracts, on the other hand, are obtained using lyophilisation, a process first applied by Aboca in the process of processing medicinal plants. The method consists in the dehydration of the liquid extract without using heat, but through a rapid freezing of the product and successive elimination of the liquid component. This occurs from the frozen to steam state directly. The process gives preparations with high concentrations of active principles, excipient-free and very soluble.

During all the transformation phases, the raw materials, semi-worked materials and finished products are subjected to stringent Quality Controls that determine the quality and quantity of active principles and the purity of the products, i.e., the absence of polluting substances such as heavy metals, radioactive substances and bacteria.

MEDICINAL PLANTS >>

TRANSFORMATION >>

PLANT PREPARATIONS MANUAL >>

BALSAMIC TIME >>

PRAYERS >>