WILLOW BARK—120 CAPSULES
A DELIGHT FOR YOUR PHYSICAL WELL-BEING
The consumption of willow bark by humans has been a tradition for thousands of years.
Already in ancient Egypt, in the fourth millennium before Christ, the wonderful power and effect of willow bark was known. This is proven by archeological discoveries. Since the 16th century before Christ, they conserved this knowledge on papyri. This ancient Egyptians' knowledge about the beneficial effect of willow bark was passed on and finally also came to Europe. There, in ancient Greece around 400 BC, Hippocrates of Kos described the valuable nutritionally effects of an extract from the bark of willows (Latin: salix). Also the famous abbess and natural scientist Hildegard of Bingen (1098 to 1179) recommended the extract to support physiological well-being. Medieval herb women cooked the willow bark and prepared a bitter beverage, which was said to even being used as cure for pain relief and inflammations in a high dose. But this interesting natural substance fell into oblivion over time, after picking willows became punishable, because they were required to produce baskets.
Only 1763 Edmund Stone, reverend in Chipping-Norton, Oxfordshire, recovered the effect of this natural substance again and called the attention of the Royal Society of Medicine to the pain relief effect of a highly concentrated essence from the bark of silver willow (salix alba). “According to my practical experience, the bark of this tree delivers a strong astringents and is very effective against conditions with chills, ague, and pain,” he wrote to the “Very honorable George, Earl of Macclesfield, President of the Royal Society of London”.
In 1828, the Munich pharmacist Johann Andreas Buchner was the first to isolate what he considered the main effective substance from willow bark, namely a natural phenol glycoside. He named it with the name that is valid until today, “salicin” (derived from the Latin name salix for willow).
It took but another 30 until the Marburg chemistry professor Hermann Kolbe 1859 was able to recover the still known salicylic acid, a natural substance, which has a medical effect in high doses. The Bayer chemist Felix Hoffmann finally managed in 1897 to produce this substance synthetically in the required high dose as pain relief (acetylsalicylic acid). The name of the resulting product: Aspirin!
Today, this miraculous substance is literally on everyone's lips. Billions of people know and value ASS (short for acetylsalicylic acid, German: Acetylsalicylsäure). More than 40,000 tons are consumed every year in hundreds of different preparations. This is also due to the versatility of the substance. By the way: For explaining the molecular working principle, the English pharmacologist John Robert Vane was awarded the Noble Prize in 1982.
Unfortunately, the synthesized acetylsalicylic acid—like many synthetic substances—bears unwanted side effects. For example, it bothers a sensible stomach, as—in contrast to natural salicin from willow bark—it is not transformed to the effective substance salicylic acid during the digestive process, but is already active in the stomach and strains the gastric mucosa. Furthermore, the synthesized acetylsalicylic acid is regarded as blood-thinning and anticoagulant, which is not the case for salicylic acid—probably due to the missing acetyl group.
Probably also due to these unwanted side effects, science has begun to concentrate on the natural substance willow bark. Current research results show, that its effect cannot be solely explained by the natural salicin and the salicylic acid, resulting from the human digestive process, but that also other substances contained in willow bark probably play a role. Willow bark actually contains, besides flavonoids and chalcones, a significant amount of natural tanning agents.
Also, reducing this natural substance to its role as natural pain relief—which is only the case in a required medical dose with an amount of 120 mg salicin per day—would do it injustice.
The natural effects of supporting the general physiological well-being, which willow bark as aliment is reputed of, are therefore disregarded for inexplicable reasons and, hence, not appreciated appropriately.
Therefore, Natura Vitalis decided to revive and continue this old traditional use of willow bark as aliment.
With the product “willow bark”, Natura Vitalis has created a supplement, which gives you the possibility to enjoy the exciting nutritionally effects of supporting the general physiological well-being. As an aliment, our product does not have the analgesic effects of a pain relief, due to its low dosage. However, in particular in intense everyday stress, the willow bark extract in our product can be a refreshment for your general physiological well-being.
We have, insofar, also added vitamin C to the product formulation, because vitamin C contributes to a normal function of the immune system, in particular during and after intense physical activity.
To offer this versatile plant in optimum quality, we use only high-grade, concentrated willow bark extract for our capsules—and not only the powder, as seen very often. Therefore, we offer our capsules at a high dose: 1200 mg as recommended daily intake, which corresponds to an amount of 90 mg of natural salicin per day!
Our tip: If you experience very intense physical strain in everyday life, we recommend you to combine our willow bark capsule with Flexi-Bel complete or our Sacra Incense Gold product. You will be delighted!
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