Product Quality

To help you to be more proactive in your horse's health James Hart makes available a range of specialised herbal liquid extracts. Unlike other companies, which merely import or re-badge other products, we manufacture all of our own in New Zealand, ensuring that our strict requirements are met. We have developed unique intellectual property in our manufacturing processes over thirty years, in conjunction with working closely with Universities and research institutes.

Ethical Extracts Limited manufactures to stringent standards so our customers can rely on consistent, high quality products. Through drawing on traditional herbal use, up to date scientific knowledge, experience and proven formulations Ethical Extracts brings you superior products. Only reputable herbal suppliers or growers of medicinal herbs are used. This ensures ethical and sustainable harvesting.

High Standards of Manufacturing Quality

Over many years we have perfected a unique method of cold percolation to extract the full range of phytochemicals from the herbs, leaving the plant material exhausted. We use no heat if it may damage volatile plant constituents.

The manufacturing process is designed to comply with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). All the extraction equipment is designed and built from stainless steel and the extraction takes place in a monitored environment.

In order to ensure that we are fully up to date with the latest scientific technology we work closely with Universities and research institutes. We continually monitor the latest research and where appropriate apply this in the development of new products and techniques.

Because we manufacture to the highest possible standards our customers can rely on consistent and high quality products.

An important issue that many herbal extract ranges do not address is the strength of their extracts. All James Hart extracts are made to a strength of 1:2. This means that each kilo of plant is extracted into 2 litres of liquid. In this case an alcohol mix.

Benefits of Liquid extracts

Liquid extracts capture and preserve the phytochemical makeup of the plants in their natural state as closely as possible. We therefore manufacture the herbs as soon after harvest as possible to capture the herb at its best before it starts to lose its active constituents.

We are in no doubt that in most cases a quality liquid extract made with alcohol will give superior and quicker results than using the dried herb. Liquids are more quickly absorbed and give quicker results.

Another advantage is that ethanol is an excellent preservative and in the amounts used in your horse’s feed it is quite safe. Our products are not only potent, and fast absorbing, unlike dried herbs which deteriorate over time if kept at room temperature, our liquid extracts have a shelf life of up to five years! 

Value for money

James Hart products are potent, fast acting and have a long shelf life and always manufactured to 1:2 strength, and retain their active constituents for years longer than dried herbs.

It is really important to know the strength so that you know how much herb equivalent you are giving your horse. As we know the effect that you can expect depends on the amount given so this is really important information. With James Hart products you don’t pay extract price for sweeteners and fillers such as cider vinegar.

Adulteration

It is easy to order dried herbs from a supplier but there is no absolute guarantee that what you get is what you order. Substitution may occur through an honest mistake, but some suppliers are less scrupulous. There have been many documented instances of adulteration of an expensive herb with cheap and sometimes even toxic alternatives.

We are dedicated to Quality

Quality Starts with the Raw materials

The levels of actives in plants varies throughout the year. It is therefore important to harvest at the correct time. The levels of actives also vary in different parts of the plant so it is equally important to use the correct part of the plant. A good way to look at this is to think about carrots. We generally harvest them in the autumn when they are best, and we eat the root not the top.

Herb Drying

Once the herb has been harvested it must be dried in the correct way. If drying is too slow degeneration can be excessive and fungal growth may occur on the harvested plant. If it is dried at too high a temperature many of the delicate phytochemicals can be lost.

Herb Storage

Correct storage of dried herbs is more important than people realise. After the drying process the herbs need to be properly kept. Herbs deteriorate over time if kept at room temperature.

Herb Sourcing

At Ethical extracts we do our best to ensure that the raw herbs we use are from cultivated sources or harvested from the wild in a sustainable and ethical manner. We only source through reputable established suppliers, we encourage local growers and grow some of our own herbs, so we can ensure that our herbs are correctly identified and optimally harvested. The herbs are processed as soon after harvest as possible to minimise the loss of actives.

Further Testing

Before manufacture we follow rigorous procedures and exhaustive testing to make certain we are using the correct herb. We only use human grade quality raw materials.

Extraction

Many companies that sell liquid extracts do not carry out their own manufacture. We believe this is an area that can often lead to compromises in quality, so we have a hands on approach and do all of our own manufacturing. We have been manufacturing extracts for many years for use by both humans and horses. An advantage of using alcohol as the extraction liquid is that the strength can be varied depending on the plant. For example Echinacea is best extracted in 60% whereas for Devil’s Claw 25% is more appropriate.

Extract Strength

It is really important to know the strength so that you know how much herb equivalent you are giving your horse. As we know the effect that you can expect depends on the amount given so this is really important information.

Note: You may see references to tinctures and fluid extracts. This is really just a question of terminology and from a strict herbal point of view a tincture is an extract with a strength of 1:3 or weaker. Anything stronger is a fluid extract.

This table shows cost comparisons between extract strengths, using hypothetical prices.

Extract Cost

The above table shows that the stronger the extract the more herbal constituents are contained in the extract. i.e. the higher the Dry Herb Equivalent (DHE). This means that to achieve the same DHE you need to feed proportionately less of the stronger extract and more of weaker one.

Similarly one would expect the price to reflect this. Working on the price of a 500ml bottle of 1:2 extract of $80.00 one could argue that 500ml of a 1:3 should cost $53.30 and so on.