Nature's Sunshine Quality
Named
by Forbes every year for over ten years as one of the best small
companies in the United States, Nature's
Sunshine uses pharmaceutical grade - as opposed to the less stringent
food grade - Good Manufacturing Practices.
In addition they employ over
300 quality control tests on their products, beginning
with raw materials. You can take an online virtual tour of their
manufacturing facility at the website,
as well as read about some of
these tests, or you can purchase a quality control brochure for more
detailed information. Or you can even visit the plant yourself.
Things to Consider
when choosing herbal supplements
- Have the proper plant and proper plant part been used? This requires adequate historical knowledge of herbs and plants, as well as contemporary information
- Are there adequate procedures in place for identification (and elimination) of dirty or otherwise contaminated raw materials
- Do the raw materials supply adequate levels of the properly identified active constituents of the plant
- Is a procedure in place to adequately identify and eliminate raw materials that have been "spiked" with contaminants or fillers such as lactose which is colorless, odorless substance that can take on the characteristics of whatever it is mixed with.
- Does the company use a cold process method which preserves vital nutrients rather than the much cheaper method of grinding which heats and burns the herbs. Nature's Sunshine uses the very costly cryogenic method which retains all the benficial properties of the herb.
The following is a slightly revised post from a forum we belong to which nicely addresses the question of quality and Nature's Sunshine products:
When
someone asks me about NSP versus any other company I tell them
that I KNOW about NSPs quality and manufacturing processes but I don't
know
about any other company's, and they don't make it easy to find out. Try to find out what testing and quality any
other company has. You can't.
Get a Quality Assurance brochure from NSP and
read about the testing we do. . . . [or visit
the plant and see for yourself]
NSP
does extensive testing to be sure our products are not contaminated
with things like radiation, fungus, bacteria, other plants, dirt or
rocks. Did you know that random testing of
other
brands from store shelves have turned up products that were as much as
90% rock
dust? That had fungus and bacteria in
them? NSP insists our products be clean
from our vendors or they get sent back.
NSP uses the correct part of the plant, the correct species of
plants,
so we get the full effect of the supplements we take.
They test each raw shipment for the active
ingredients, and potency. . . .
Then
I tell them some stories about NSP like:
Take
Take
Kava Kava. At one time
there was an FDA advisory about Kava Kava being harmful to the liver. Turns out some people in
Take
Noni. In my area the brand
Tahitian Noni is very big. I was told by
our VP of Quality Control that when NSP started looking for sources of
Noni
they checked out
Take
chickweed. Did you know
that the largest producer of Chickweed in the world at one time was
Take