Gut & Digestion Balance

Senna alexandrina is a small, drought-tolerant shrub native to Egypt, Sudan and the Arabian peninsula. The plant has been used in Arabic medicine since at least the 9th century AD, and was introduced to European herbalism through Arabic medical texts during the medieval period — the original Alexandrian senna takes its name from the Egyptian port city through which it was traded into Europe. Today, India is the largest commercial producer.

The leaves contain a class of compounds called sennosides — specifically sennosides A and B, which are dianthrone glycosides. Modern phytochemistry has characterised these compounds in detail; the same family of compounds appears across several traditional botanicals in this category. We use 500mg per serving, which is at the higher end of standard European supplemental doses.

Cascara sagrada — literally sacred bark in Spanish — comes from a small tree native to the Pacific Northwest of North America. The bark was used by indigenous tribes of present-day Oregon, Washington and British Columbia long before European contact, and was adopted into Western herbalism in the 1870s by Dr John Bundy of the Eclectic medical school. By the early 20th century it was one of the most-used herbal materials in European pharmacies.

The bark contains cascarosides — a group of anthranoid glycosides (cascarosides A, B, C and D) that are structurally related to but distinct from the sennosides found in senna leaf. Modern cascara extracts are aged for at least one year before use, since freshly-harvested bark is too irritating for direct use — this is a quality marker we follow.

Lactobacillus acidophilus is a Gram-positive bacterium that is one of the most extensively-studied probiotic species in modern microbiology. The species was first isolated and characterised in the early 20th century. It is also a familiar resident of the human digestive tract and is found naturally in fermented dairy foods including some traditional yogurts and kefirs.

Note: Bulgaria has a famous association with a related but distinct species, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, the bacterium responsible for traditional Bulgarian yogurt. Lactobacillus acidophilus is a different species; we mention this only to avoid confusion.

Plantago ovata is a small annual herb native to the Indian subcontinent and parts of the Middle East. It has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for over two thousand years, and the seed husk — the part used in supplements — is one of the most concentrated natural sources of soluble fibre. India remains the world's largest producer, with the bulk of commercial cultivation taking place in the state of Gujarat.

The husk is composed primarily of arabinoxylan, a soluble polysaccharide that swells dramatically in contact with water — a single gram of psyllium husk can absorb many times its weight in water and form a soft, gel-like mass. This physical property is the basis for its traditional use.

Flaxseed has been part of human food culture since the Neolithic period — archaeological evidence from sites in present-day Switzerland and Bulgaria shows flax cultivation going back at least 6,000 years. The plant is grown across temperate Europe, with major production in France, Belgium, Russia and central European countries including Bulgaria.

Flaxseed contains both soluble and insoluble fibre, plant lignans (the highest concentration of any common food), and the omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid. In Gut & Digestion Balance, the fibre and lignan content are the relevant components.

Aloe vera is a succulent plant native to the Arabian peninsula and now cultivated commercially across the warmer regions of the world — Mexico is currently the largest producer, followed by the Dominican Republic, the United States and India. The gel from the inner leaf has been used in herbal traditions across Africa, the Middle East and the Mediterranean for thousands of years; archaeological evidence shows aloe use in Egyptian medical practice as early as 1500 BC.

The gel is composed primarily of polysaccharides — soft, gel-forming compounds traditionally associated with soothing properties. We use 50mg of decolourised, low-aloin aloe vera gel powder per serving, which is the standard for European supplements.