HERBAL MEDICINE
HERBAL MEDICINE:
Chinese herbology is one branch of traditional Chinese medicine, and herbal medicines are derived from plants (ie. flowers, rhizomes, fruits, algae, barks, leaves), minerals, medicinal foods (ie. Vegetables, fruits), and some limited animal products (ie. sea shells and bones). Herbal formulas can be easily made without animal products if desired. In the US, Chinese herbs are labeled as “dietary supplements” by the Food and Drug Administration, and are incredibly effective and safe if taken appropriately and if prescribed and directed by a trained and licensed practitioner.
At Transcend, we only use herbs that have been legally imported and domestically processed, with stringent quality control and meticulous preparation. Whereas many illegally imported Chinese herbal products contain pharmaceutical drugs, artificial additives, and heavy metals such as lead or mercury, by using companies that formulate Chinese herbs in the U.S. for practitioners (such as Health Concerns and Mayway Corporation) we are able to guarantee the safety, quality, and effectiveness of herbal medicines. These companies’ products also carry liability insurance and are clinically tested for safety and purity. Please see below for quality control procedures of companies used by Transcend Health and Wellness.
Good Manufacturing Practices
Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) helps ensure the quality and safety of products, traceability of ingredients, and transparency of the manufacturing process among other things. GMP certification means that the site and methods employed in production have been subject to a thorough quality control investigation by a government agency .
Quality Testing
At each of the GMP certified facilities of our manufacturing partners is an in-house lab where extensive quality control analysis is performed. Testing ranges from basic organoleptic and microscopy to higher-level analytical techniques including High Performance Thin Layer Chromotography and High Performance Liquid Chromatography to confirm identification,
In–House Quality Control
In line with Dietary Supplement GMPs, each lot received into our warehouse is first quarantined. Then each product is sampled, the Certificate of Analysis verified, and the sample is compared with past lots for consistency. Herbs are inspected using sensory protocols, and confirmed against standard references if necessary to verify quality and species.
3rd Party Laboratory Testing
Following extensive in–house testing at the manufacturing site, heavy metal testing is routinely conducted again at third party labs to confirm results and to ensure that our rigorous standards of purity and safety are met. More sophisticated analyses, such as aristolochic acid testing and chloramphenicol.
Pharmacopoeia Guidelines
Our manufacturers adhere to official Chinese Pharmacopoeia guidelines or other government sanctioned references in the making of our products. These references contain individual monographs that have been reviewed and chosen from different references across China by a scientific committee.
Testing Standards and Limits
Each herbal product has an individual product specification that outlines basic product requirements including ingredients, processing method, and quality control information. Quality control information includes applicable testing requirements and limit standards for that product.
Product and Ingredient Traceability:
In addition to batch numbers assigned by the manufacturer, we assign tracking numbers to each product. This allows any product to be traced back to the starting materials. The ingredients in any prescription can be traced back to its individual batch information.