Slovenes have a long tradition of collecting and cultivating herbs on their land. Unfortunately, despite having excellent natural conditions (well preserved environment and abundant water sources, the length of sunlight per day, ecological integrity of many areas suitable for cultivation...), the quantity of herbs produced is steadily decreasing, and an increasing proportion of herbal products are imported from other countries.
Both founders of Herbify are pharmacists with previous experience in fields of oncology, cardiology, infectology and others. That is why we are well aware of the importance of herbs in our everyday life, as well as their role in the health of an individual. The idea to start a project that would offer herbal preparations produced in Slovenia to the local market, has a quality control system from seed to shelf, has products with a determined content of active substances that have scientifically been proven to have a physiological effect and are safe for human use, has been maturing for quite a while. The positive effects of certain herbs on human health are known and well understood, yet people cannot always access their preparations if they are not present on the market for various reasons. Consequently, people in need sometimes decide to obtain uncontrolled preparations of dubious quality and safety outside official sales channels, which is completely unacceptable from our point of view. Therefore, Herbify wants to fill the gap and become the leading producer of trusted herbal preparations of Slovenian origin, which you will find in pharmacies, specialized stores and elsewhere.
The first step that we have taken is the production of maybe the most sought after herb at the moment - sweet wormwood and its processing to end products. The decision to grow sweet wormwood has also been made for the following reasons:
1. The demand for sweet wormwood has been rising steadily in recent years, but its preparations are almost impossible to find in stores.
2. Sweet wormwood products found outside official sales channels are of dubious quality and safety, with an unknown content of artemisinin, which is allegedly responsible for most of its activity.
3. Its traditional use is very well documented.
4. There is an abundance of scientific research regarding the activity of different substances contained in sweet wormwood plants.
In accordance with our philosophy we started with the propagation of seeds. They were sown into a special soil that facilitates the growth of herbs. After a while, the seeds germinated and grew into strong seedlings, which were transplanted to a carefully selected field in cooperation with local farmers and help from our close friends.
We have followed the guidelines from the World Health Organization's monograph on good agricultural and collecting practices of sweet wormwood during all phases of cultivation. Only water was added to the plants, without any mineral fertilizers or chemical agents. Nevertheless, the plants on average exceeded the height of 1.80 m and were very strong and healthy.
The harvest of the herb was done manually, again with the generous help from our close friends. All of the plant material was meticulously separated, and only the best parts of the plant were used for the extraction process. Although the work is quite exhausting, it is certainly worth it. We have also dedicated a lot of energy trying to find an appropriate drying facility. After a long search, we have managed to do so. The most important parameters were a sufficient capacity and the ability to control the temperature and drying time very precisely which ensured compliance with the principles of good manufacturing practice in the drying process. The drying temperature was closely monitored and ranged between 40 and 45 ° C throughout the process. This method ensured that all useful substances from freshly harvested material stay preserved in the final product.
While the plants were proudly growing, they strengthened and produced useful substances, we developed the end products. So far, we have spent most of our time devoting ourselves to a product that is already available - a sweet wormwood extract. Since we wanted to produce an extract that would contain the most useful substances from sweet wormwood and as few others, which are unnecessary or even harmful to our health, we decided not to prepare herb tinctures, but to use another type of extraction - the supercritical CO2 method (you can read more about it in the description of the product), thus avoiding the use of alcohol. Since the method is currently more frequently used in the scientific and research circle and the machines that make such extractions possible are still very expensive, we have connected with the only company in Slovenia that has such an apparatus available. They also research and produce extracts from various plant materials in their extraction facility. The extraction and filling of the product was thus carried out in cooperation with them.
Since we want to offer trustworthy quality in safe end products, we have been collaborating with several experts from the Faculty of Pharmacy (in Ljubljana, SLO) during the entire development phase of our herbal preparations. Also the content of the active substances has been analyzed there, which ensures that our products are the ones that really offer what they promise.
However, the analysis of content is not yet a guarantee for exceptional quality of our finished products; we are also cooperating with the National Laboratory for Health, Environment and Food. Our products are being periodically tested for microbiological stability throughout their lifetime, thus making them exceptionally safe to use.
After a full year of development and careful search for business partners, we can now present our first product - the sweet wormwood extract, with its quality and safety matched by none worldwide. (You can find it at the online pharmacy Lekarnar.com). We are looking forward to all of your opinions and comments, which you can provide via contact pages or the Lekarnar.com web portal.
(Food supplement is not intended for the prevention and treatment of diseases)
Stay healthy!
Herbify d.o.o. team