Hello from down under! I recently returned from a trip to Australia to visit the MediHerb warehouse and processing plant, as well as the testing facility, and I have to say I fell in love with this company more than ever!
Let’s start at the beginning. Somewhere in early 2019 I received an email from MediHerb inviting me to attend a speaker training session. I was so excited I didn’t sleep that night. I had heard about this training from my mentor, Dr. Ronda, and was so jealous of her experience having seen pictures of her trip and heard her passion when she returned. MediHerb only chooses 8-10 healthcare providers from the United States every 3 or 4 years to do this training so I felt very honored to receive this invitation. I immediately cleared my calendar and said YES!
Before I knew it it was July 4th and time to go. A flight to LA, an 8 hour layover, and a 13 hour flight to Brisbane. Fortunately it was dark the whole time, even though I left on Thursday and got there on Saturday morning, and I slept most of the way! I arrived and met the rest of the group, a wonderful mix of healthcare providers all passionate about helping their communities using the best herbs on the planet!
Our first day was out to the MediHerb warehouse and processing plant. We learned about the sourcing of the herbs, where in the world they come from. Literally, their schisandra comes from Siberia since that’s where the best schisandra comes from, and Kava comes from Vanuatu because that is where the royal cultivars are grown. I learned that they take 11 random samples from each pallet of raw herb, test them in the lab using electron microscopes, mass spectroscopy, gas spectroscopy and a multitude of other testing procedures. All this is to determine if the herbs in the bag match the structure and composition of the herb as listed in the British Pharmacopiea as well as those used in clinical studies. If they match they get to leave the quarantined area and proceed to the processing area. If they don’t match, so for example, if the farmer sends in a sample and it gets tested and it supposed to be chamomile, it could look like chamomile, smell like chamomile but does not have the proper phytochemical composition, it doesn’t get used! There were several pallets of rejected chamomile in the warehouse. The very interesting part of this tour was that I learned about MediHerb’s committment to educate the farmers they source the herbs from. They will send a scientist out to the farm and help that farmer figure out what happened to insure a harvest that is worthy of the high standards of MediHerb. Sadly they won’t be able to use the rejected herbs. The relationship with the farmer, the climate the herbs are grown in, and the storage and preparation of the herbs are all vital to the clinical results we achieve in our practice.
Quality Testing 
Mass Spectrometer
The afternoon was spent at the lab, where the testing of the herbs are done. Everything from quality of the herb to detecting pollutants, pesticides, and unwanted plant material, etc. is performed at the highest level. Testing to determine the digestibility of the tablets is done, insuring that the tablets will break down in the body at the appropriate time, whether that is in the stomach, the small intestine or the large intestine. It was amazing. I can’t tell you how many times over the past 35 years I have seen on x-ray, pills that are undigested in the intestines. Money wasted, health not improved! So sad.
The next 4 days we learned from the Masters of the Herbal Universe! Professor Kerry Bone, Lee Carroll and Amanda Williams, all from Australia, all Clinical Practitioners (meaning they see patients) so they are hands on using the same herbs I do here. Professor Bone is a research scientist, turned herbalist, turned author, professor and clinician. He is brilliant and I am so honored to have been learning directly from the man himself and not a book! Oh, and he started the MediHerb company in 1986 in a goat shed at his home!
I gained insight into the physiology of the herbal action on and in the body, how MediHerb products are synergistically formulated to provide a multi-layered approach to a health concern in addition to how closely the research is followed to make sure that there are clinical studies to back up the claims made by practitioners and their patients.
Plants are food and plants are herbs. Both are medicinal when used properly, and I think this experience has cemented this commitment for me. Plants as medicine are the wave of the future, we can no longer wait until we are sick, we must practice prevention if we are to increase our life expectancy. This most recent generation is the FIRST in the history of mankind to have a lower life expectancy than the previous generation. We must ask why and rise together to find the answers. And medicine must be of the highest quality if we are to succeed!
Kava Sunrise 
A mix of Kava and Saffron
The human condition is stressful. If nutrition becomes diluted or compromised, the human condition is affected. I see this in my office and out my car window and in the grocery store every day; compromised humans. We can blame our food supply, the chemical companies, the pace at which we live life, but in the end we are responsible for our food, what chemicals we choose to put in and on our body, and the pace at which we live this life. And sometimes we need help. Whole food and the proper herbs can help. If you or someone you know needs some help with life improvement, give us a call at (916) 844-2800, we are glad to help.
“Our passion at MediHerb is to unlock the healing power of plants by combining the time-honored wisdom of traditional knowledge with sound clinical experience and the rigor of scientific research.” Professor Kerry Bone
