FAQs :: TCM Formulas

FAQs

Why TCM Formulas?

Powerful herbs in convenient form for your patients. We provide you with access to:

The potency, flexibility and efficacy of raw herbs, with
The increased compliance and convenience of granules and liquid extracts.
Custom-mixed or Personalized herbal formulas

We are the only company whose focus is to custom-mix formulas per your prescription for each of your patients.

Aren’t Raw Herbs Better?

Generally it’s the lack of patient compliance that prevents most of us from prescribing raw herbs. We think: “If patients would take them, I would use them!”

Raw herbs may not be the best choice for other reasons.

The quality of raw herbs varies significantly, do you have the time and expertise to test or evaluate the quality of the raw herbs that might come into your pharmacy? Most of us don’t, but that is the primary job of the powder and liquid manufacturers
Raw herbs have a very limited shelf life
Improper storage (too much air, moisture, heat) can decrease efficacy
Keeping them free of insects or airborne molds is no small task
Many Chinese herbs are treated with toxic substances to create their characteristic appearance. Bleach is used to make Ge Gen pure white… the Huang’s aren’t naturally so yellow.

Why not just start my own Pharmacy?

Have all the benefits of your own pharmacy without any of the cost or hassle.

Liquid and powder pharmacies are expensive and time-consuming to set-up and maintain
Ordering, unpacking, pricing and restocking takes time away from treating patients (or costs you money for employees)
Filling custom each formula from individual powdered herbs can take 15 minutes
Without a resale license you incur tax & financial risk. Record-keeping and filing sales taxes is a huge hassle too
Dispensing only patents or pills decreases your potential effectiveness
As our field grows, you’ll want to stay ahead & distinguish yourself from competitors.

When should I use Liquid and Powder Extracts?

We’ve all read about the startling results of herbal treatment in the classics and certain case studies. Prepared, patent medicines or unconcentrated granules cannot achieve these results and were not intended to do so.

The purpose of patent medicines was to provide the public with safe access to basic Chinese treatment approaches, such as tonification. Similar to over-the-counter medications in the West, the use of patents doesn’t require medical & herbal education.

Trained herbalists in Chinese used high potency herbs and elevated dosages to achieve the desired effect. If results aren’t achieved, the diagnosis may have been correct but the herbal dosage was simply too low.

What conditions respond best to Liquid and Powder Extracts?

If your patient has a chronic, complex condition that will require long-term herbal treatment, then TCM Formulas’ custom herbal formulas are ideal. They

Are convenient for the patient, and
Allow you to make formula modifications as the patient gradually changes and improves

This flexibility will prevent a common and expensive situation, where the Oriental medicine patient gradually acquires a cabinet full of tablet-herb bottles…half used.

TCM Formulas may not be ideal for acute conditions (when the patient requires herbs immediately). However, some practitioners will order specific formulas or combinations that they know their patients will need… say for a coming seasonal change, perhaps in your climate’s specific conditions.

What if I’m too busy to write formulas from scratch for each patient? …How can I combine Liquid Extracts?

The liquid extract formulas are based on Chinese classics, and being liquid, they are easily combined together for patients with more than 1 pattern.

For example, the hot flashes, depression and irritability typically experienced by perimenopausal women is often Liver Qi Stasis with Depressive Heat Ascending and Kidney yin deficiency.

For this combination of patterns, we’d suggest combining equal parts of 2 formulas:

Bupleurum & Peony (Dan Zhi Xiao Yao San) and
Anem-Phello Rehmannia Combination (Zhi Bai Di Huang Wan)
Dosage: 5 droppers twice daily.

What about Refills?

If there are no changes to your patient’s formula, just call, fax, or email in the patient’s name and their formula name or number, asking for a refill.

What are Powdered Extracts?

Powders (once called granules or granulars) are made from decoctions of raw herbs. They are cooked in the traditional style with water as a tea. The liquid extract is then concentrated and dried to a sticky sap-like substance. The sap is then mixed with the dried powdered herb and ground into a fine granule. More on the extraction process

The finished product can be made into a suspension or tea and drunk like tea or mixed with applesauce and eaten. Some patients prefer to just put spoonfuls directly on their tongue and wash them down with a little water.

How Strong are the Powders?

Powders are a 5:1 concentration. Each gram of powder equals the potency of 5 grams of raw herb in decoction. When patients make teas at home, errors and irregularities in the cooking process lead to a significant to loss of potency.

Because powders are prepared under the strictest laboratory conditions, powders are actually much stronger than the numbers suggest. Each batch of powders is tested to assure that it provides a minimum of active ingredient per gram. Therefore, powders can be used at a slightly lower dose than raw herbs.

How Safe are Powders?

Granules are lab-tested for heavy metals, bacteria and fungus. Plus KPC granules are batch tested for pesticide and herbicide residues on a regular basis. Patients can only purchase herbs via a prescription from a licensed acupuncturist.

How are Powders more Flexible than other forms of Herbs?

Granule formulas can be prepared to your exact specifications. You choose the ingredients and dosage. You are not limited by a manufacturer’s premade formulas where you can’t delete ingredients or change doses to suit your patient. This way, you can practice chinese herbal medicine to its fullest and give your patients the best medicine for them.

Aren’t Powders more Expensive than other Patent Herbs?

Since powders are more potent than other solid forms of patent and give the practitioner maximum flexibility in prescribing, powders really shouldn’t be compared to other forms of patents. However, they are very close in price.

A two week course of powders will cost the patient around $28. While this is slightly more than raw herbs, the convenience more than makes up for it. Patients often reject or eventually give up on raw herbs because of the time it takes – and the smell! Granules avoid both of these problems.

Practitioners are free markup the price for their patients. That can mean thousands of dollars per year in profits. In fact, because you collect the money including your mark-up, you make money before you’ve even ordered the herbs! Many acupuncturists make the majority of their earnings from herb sales.

Why do you recommend dosing twice a day?

We recommend dosing no more frequently than 2 times per day. Patient compliance can be as high as 90% when the dosage is once per day. Compliance drops by 20% when a second dose is added. With the addition of a third dose, patient compliance plummets another 50%. So, while herbs three times a day may be ideal for the patient, in our experience, the more frequent the dosage, the less likely your patient is to take the herbs at all.

More on The Extraction Process

KPC Herbs are produced by Kaiser Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (KP Ltd.) in Taiwan and imported into the United States by KPC Products, Inc. KP Ltd. is one of the oldest and most respected producers of concentrated Chinese herbs in the world. Its state-of-the-art facilities have earned the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification of the Department of Health, Republic of China and Commonwealth Department of Health, Australia.

The attention to quality extends from the selection of herbs through the entire manufacturing process. The manufacture of concentrates follows demanding and complex scientific procedures; an outline of the process is as follows:

Raw herbs are checked for quality by well-trained personnel and with scientific instruments.
The herbs are prepared according to the tenets of Chinese medicine. Some herbs are stir-fried, others are wine-fried, etc.

The following processes take place in a clean-room environment:

Single herbs or formulas are cooked in large vats of water in a closed and controlled environment while essential oils are collected for reintroduction later on.
The herbs are removed from the decoction; the liquid is further concentrated, essential oils are reintroduced, and then the mixture is sprayed into a vacuum drying chamber.
The concentrate forms on small particles of raw herbs (or, in some cases, starch) that are introduced into the chamber, and then is vacuum-dried at low temperature.
The concentrated herbs are then siphoned into a separate clean-room where they are bottled, labeled and sealed.
After processing, the product undergoes stringent control procedures to ensure that each lot contains a consistent amount of active constituents.
Further, each lot is subjected to strict tests for bacteria count, E. coli, salmonella and heavy metals

What is the Concentrated Liquid Extraction Process?

As extractors, both alcohol and water have been important to herbal products in both the East and West for centuries. In combination, they are the solvents of choice in extracting the active components of an herb which are deep within the cellular structure of the plant.

Alcohol soluble active ingredients include: alkaloids, triterpenoids, and essential oils.
Water soluble components include: polysaccharides, saponins, and vitamins.

Effective extraction of these and many other herbal constituents into a liquid solution enhances their bioavailability, making them immediately available for assimilation into the body. The result is a more efficient delivery system for the herb, as well as improved results.

This is particularly ideal for patients with impaired digestion or Spleen qi deficiency who cannot assimilate herbs in a solid form such as pills. Recent studies have even shown that a small amount of alcohol serves to guide the active ingredient within herb or medication directly to the liver, where most substances are metabolized for use by the body.

Far East Summit, the manufacturers of our liquid extracts, utilizes a patented dual extraction process which generates a 5:1 herb to liquid ratio. They are processed to retain essential oils, energetic activity and the subtle taste of the five flavors so often lost through other preparation methods.

For detailed information regarding their process, we suggest calling Hank Babcock at Far East Summit (888) 441-0489 or visit their website.

Safety and Quality of Concentrated Liquid Extracts

Far East Summit has been a highly respected herbal manufacturer for over 15 years, with a commitment to provide safe and effective herbal products. Their experienced staff maintains quality control monitoring processes, including GMP (good manufacturing processes) and SOP (standard operating procedures).

Sourcing, receiving, quarantine, proper herb identification, weighing/measuring, grinding, herb processing, finished product, and retained sampling are in full compliance with all government and industry standards. Lot number indentification allows traceability throughout the manufacturing process.

What about the Alcohol?

As an extractors, alcohol has been important to herbal products in both the East and West for centuries. In addition to water, it is a solvent of choice in extracting the active components which may lie deep within the medicinal’s cellular structure. Alcohol soluble active ingredients include: alkaloids, triterpenoids, and essential oils.

This is particularly ideal for patients with impaired digestion or Spleen qi deficiency who cannot assimilate herbs in a solid form such as pills. Recent studies have even shown that a small amount of alcohol serves to guide the active ingredient within herbs and medication directly to the liver, where most substances are metabolized for use in the body.

Far East Summit, the manufacturers of our liquid extracts, uses a patented duel extraction process to generate a minimum of 5:1 herb to liquid ratio. They are processed to retain essential oils, energetic activity and the subtle taste of the five flavors so often lost through other preparation methods.

Far East Summit has also just introduced their newest line of 8:1 concentrates with their unique processing method.

For specific information on how the classics are formulated and processed to account for the “more warming and moving effect” of the alcohol, please call Hank Babcock at Far East Summit (888) 441-0489, he loves to discuss this topic!

I’ve tried other companies’ extracts, and they seem thicker.

You’d think that a thicker extract would mean a more potent formula. However, many of the plant solids found in other extractions are not the active components of the herbs. This means that thicker extracts may actually be less effective! Good extractions include as part of their process the extraction of inactive plant solids.

Far East even uses a specifically different extraction process for yin and xue tonics versus qi and yang tonics. For more details, call Hank! (888) 441-0489.

How should I combine Liquid Formulas?

Our liquid extracts come in two sizes:

2 ounce bottles
4 ounce bottles

When combining formulas, a primary concern is getting a sufficient amount of each formula in the combination. To guarantee good patient response, we believe the number of different formulas combined should not exceed three.

Consult the Liquid Prescription Form
Indicate 2 or 4 ounces
Select 1/2 , 1/3, or 2/3 for each component. If you choose three formulas, you must do 1/3 of each. With two formulas, you can do half and half, or 1/3 and 2/3.

Can I modify traditional Liquid Formulas with individual liquid extract herbs?

TCM Formulas is in the process of acquiring inidividual liquid extracts that will meet our quality standards and be of a compatible concentration (5:1) to modify Far East Summit formulas.

We’ll be announcing the addition of this service as soon as it is available.

What is the Standard Dosage for Liquid Extracts?

Far East recommends 1-3 droppers (One squeeze of the dropper bulb fills it half way; this is considered a dropper-full), 3 times per day. This is equivalent to the standard dosing of a raw formula.

We recommend dosages of 4-6 droppers, 2 times daily… this is a bit more overall, and dosed less frequently (see next question).

Should I take them before or after meals?

One benefit to the alcohol content, is rapid absorption of the herbs regardless of food intake. Liquid concentrates can be taken before or after meals, though patients potentially sensitive to alcohol should be instructed to take liquid herbs after meals.

Why do you Recommend Dosing twice a day?

We recommend dosing no more frequently than 2 times per day.

Patient compliance can be as high as 90% when the dosage is once per day. Compliance drops by 20% when a second dose is added. With the addition of a third dose, patient compliance plummets another 50%. If a patient is unable to follow the practitioner’s advice, they may not feel as good about the treatment in general.

So, though taking herbs three times a day may be ideal, in our experience the more frequent the dosage, the less likely a patient is to take the herbs at all.

How long will it take to use up a bottle?

If prescribed at normal dosages:

A 2-ounce bottle will last from 7 to 10 days
A 4-ounce bottle will last from 14 to 20 days (2 to 3 weeks)

Hot Water Will NOT Evaporate the Alcohol from Liquid Herbs.

This is a common misconception. Putting 3-6 droppers of tincture into nearly boiling water and letting it sit will only disperse fumes making the mixture more palatable, and the alcohol less obvious.

In order to eliminate the alcohol, one would need to boil the tincture, reducing the total volume by the percentage of alcohol. This would significantly alter the property of the herbs, possibly rendering them inactive or creating new compounds in the process.