Herbal Capsules with Whole Botanical Powder
Expertly Formulated Plant-Based Supplements for Daily Vitality
Explore our Capsule Collection
Herbal capsules are dried, milled plant material, root, leaf, flower or bark, enclosed in a two-piece shell so it can be swallowed without tasting it. They suit botanicals too bitter, tough or slow to give themselves up to an infusion. The shell is usually either gelatin, made from animal collagen, or HPMC, made from plant cellulose. Ours are HPMC throughout.
Only if the shell is plant-based. Gelatin capsules are made from animal collagen and are not vegan; HPMC capsules are made from plant cellulose and are. Every capsule in our range uses an HPMC shell, and nothing in the collection is animal-derived. If a label doesn't say, it's usually gelatin.
Whole herb powder is the dried plant milled as it is, so it contains the full range of compounds that occur naturally in it. An extract concentrates particular compounds using water, alcohol or another solvent, then dries what's left, so a 10:1 extract means ten parts raw material reduced to one. Neither is universally better. Most of our formulas use whole powder; two use extracts deliberately, because that's the traditional preparation for those particular plants.
Fillers, binders, flow agents and anti-caking agents are added to make capsules faster and cheaper to manufacture, magnesium stearate, silicon dioxide, rice flour and maltodextrin are the common ones. They serve the production line rather than the person taking the capsule. They also displace active ingredient, so a capsule with several fillers holds less plant than one without. Ours contain the named botanicals and the shell, and nothing else.
Fruiting body and mycelium are different parts of the organism with different compositions, and most commercial mycelium is grown on grain, which is then dried and milled together with it. That means a proportion of what's in the bottle can be grain rather than mushroom. The fruiting body is the mushroom itself, the part traditionally used. Ours is a 10:1 hot-water extract from wood-grown fruiting body only, with organic acerola berry and no grain carrier.
Most are taken with or shortly after food, which is gentler on an empty stomach and helps with absorption of fat-soluble compounds. Beyond that it depends on the formula: evening blends built on valerian or passionflower are usually taken before bed, and everything else generally with breakfast. Two a day is a common serving, making a bottle of sixty a month's supply.
Often yes, but it depends on what's in them. The thing to watch is duplication — taking two formulas that both contain the same botanical means a larger dose of it than either label suggests. It's worth reading both ingredient lists side by side, and worth asking a herbalist or pharmacist if you take prescription medicine. Our Medical Herbalists can go through it with you.
It depends on the formula. Joint & Muscle contains celery seed; for anything else, the full ingredients are on each product page, and our Medical Herbalists are happy to talk it through.