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The most important factors in producing a good herbal extract are to use the best quality raw herb and highly skilled extraction technique, and to alter as little possible the quality and ratio of the herb's natural chemical profile. A standardized herbal extract is not superior quality because it's label lists a specific quantity of one (out of hundreds) of the herb's chemical constituents, nor does it have superior healing and health promoting potential because it is "stronger". 

The superior extract is the "balanced" extract that most fully represents the original herb from which it is made, but in a more concentrated and optimally assimilated form.

Full herbal extracts (a.k.a. crude or simple extracts) are extracted in order to assure the finished extract contain the broadest spectrum of an herb's chemical constituents in a similar ratio to the crude herb itself. Full extracts are produced using grain or fruit alcohol, water and/or vegetable glycerin which are biodegradable and environmentally and body friendly.

Standardized extracts arose out of the need to create a uniform product for clinical trials. Broadly speaking, there are two types. One is based on identifying and quantifying an extract to a characteristic chemical marker compound. The second, identifies and concentrates one or more asactive constituents, making it closer to the level of a chemical isolate. This means that other naturally occurring constituents are displaced at the expense of one or a number of compounds.

Standardized extracts are often extracted with acetone, benzene, methyl alcohol, butyl alcohol, carbon tetrachloride, and other synthetic chemicals that, although removed from the finished product (but not always), can be harmful to the environment and the human body.

Standardization generally refers to chemical extraction of the deemed active constituent. Two assumptions come immediately to the fore. Does one ingredient alone reflect the curative power in a given plant medicine? And does this ingredient become more potent in a concentrated extract than in the whole herb itself? Few herbs are actually standardized to a relatively pure isolate. Turmeric standardized to 95% curcumin has been manipulated to up the normal ante of 3-4% of this spice constituent. Other popular standardized herbs include milk thistle with 80% silymarin, gingko with 24% flavoglycosides, saw palmetto with 90% free fatty acids, kava kava with 40% kavalactones, and grape seed with 95% polyphenols. 

Today's herbal extract buyer should purchase their extracts based upon the extract manufacture's professional mastery and integrity and not whether the extract is standardized or not. If we are promoting herbs as a "natural" and "wholesome" form of health care, then the herbal extracts we sell should be natural and whole.