Is it botanicals or herbals? Both words are often used interchangeably, but do they mean the same thing?

When it comes to dietary supplements, “botanical” is a broad term referring to substances obtained from plants. A botanical could be the leaves, stems, flowers, or roots of the plant itself. It could also be a standardized plant extract, essential oil, or even minerals from the plant. Botanical ingredients may be recommended for a whole range of uses including cosmetic, medicinal, nutritional, flavoring, seasoning, or scents.

Similarly, herbs are plants or plant parts used for medicinal, nutritional, flavoring, and other uses. And while in botany the term “herb” means a non-woody, seed-bearing plant that dies to the ground each winter, in dietary supplements the term “herbal” is not as directly defined.

But in general, most people who use dietary supplements mean the same thing when they say “herbal” or “botanical”, so for the purpose of this article, they will be used interchangeably, representing both whole plants and plant extracts.

When you think of botanicals, what comes to mind? Most people are familiar with turmeric (curcumin), chamomile, lavender, or ginger. You might take these in different forms – as a drink such as tea, a spice/ seasoning to flavor meals, or as a capsule.  Botanicals are versatile, and often the way we use them still depends on tradition.

Traditional botanical medicine

Around the world, most indigenous cultures have relied on herbal medicines for health promotion. In fact, herbs were the original medicines throughout the world. We often think of herbs as quaint, using terms like “folk remedy,” but the reality is, before the invention of modern medicine, humans relied on botanicals to promote health and longevity.

Ayurveda, a traditional form of medicine, has been practiced and recognized in India for 5,000 years. The Ayurvedic system relies on nutrition, herbal remedies, and an emphasis on the body, mind, and spirit. Similarly, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Japanese traditional medicine, and traditional Korean medicine are deeply ingrained in the respective local cultures, relying on botanical remedies as one of the primary sources of medicinal healing. In China, for example, traditional remedies make up one-fifth of the pharmaceutical market.

In traditional forms of botanical medicine, herbal remedies are often individualized, mixed, and blended to meet a person’s unique needs. This can be difficult to translate into modern, conventional medicine, where pharmaceuticals are designed through large-scale clinicals trials, often meant to identify a small range of conditions for which a single medicine may be used. In contrast, clinical studies utilizing botanicals are often much smaller, and the herbs being studied may be used in isolation or in a concentrated extract, the use of which may be quite different from tradition.

This difference in use of botanicals means that historical safety data may not be equivalent to modern use. For this reason, clinical trials using botanicals are increasingly important for guiding safe and effective modern herbal use. While one can find a plethora of clinical trials using herbal ingredients, a quick scan of many published trials quickly reveals that the ingredients being studied are specific, branded botanical extracts.

Are there benefits to branded botanical ingredients?

Botanical ingredients found in supplements can be divided into two main categories – branded ingredients and non-branded (or generic) botanicals. Both are useful and have their place in dietary supplements, but there are some distinct differences between the two.

Branded ingredients are trademarked, and many also are patented. Both of which can signal a certain level of quality and standards in production. However, branded doesn’t necessarily mean better, and many non-branded botanicals are grown and produced to high standards and with a high level of attention to quality.

Suppliers of branded ingredients often seek opportunities to make their ingredients stand out amongst a crowded marketplace. Some suppliers create botanical extracts that are standardized to specific active ingredients. Many suppliers also design clinical studies that utilize branded ingredients and are conducted to look for specific results. While these steps generally result in positive developments in herbal ingredients, they can also result in a more expensive botanical extract.

In addition, traditional herbal medicine has relied on the whole herbal extract, containing all the herbal constituents, not just one or two of the most active. In this way, the history of traditional herbal use is less helpful for guiding the use of modern branded ingredients, which makes specific clinical research on branded ingredients even more necessary to identify safe and effective use.

All this increased focus and resources on creating branded botanicals can have additional benefits, such as increased absorption and better bioavailability – alterations that might also lead to better results with a lower dose.

Branded ingredients might mean better bioavailability

Absorption and bioavailability of active plant constituents is sometimes a challenge with botanical extracts. Plant molecules have a tendency to clump together, resulting in larger, more complex molecules that aren’t well-absorbed in the digestive tract and are more difficult for cells to use. For these botanical extracts, a branded ingredient, such as Indena’s phytosomes, means better absorption than with an ordinary plant extract.

Phytosome technology prevents clumping by creating a botanical/phospholipid complex. In such a compound, an active botanical constituent – like curcumin or quercetin – is combined with a fat-soluble ingredient, such as phosphatidylcholine. The resulting phytosome can move more easily across the fat-friendly cell membranes of the GI tract, resulting in greater absorption into the bloodstream.

Thorne has a wide range of botanical phytosome-containing formulas, including the phytosome forms of curcumin, Boswellia, Ginkgo, grape seed, bergamot, and berberine, among others. And in the case of curcumin, the phytosome form results in 29-times greater absorption than ordinary curcumin.

Does your favorite Thorne supplement contain a botanical?  

Many Thorne products contain botanical ingredients. While some are obvious with the botanical right in the name, like Rhodiola, Broccoli Seed Extract, and Green Tea Phytosome, others might require a little light label reading to recognize all the botanicals in the formula:

  • Ginseng Plus: A trio of plant extracts including Korean red ginseng, lion’s mane, and Greek mountain tea to support cognition, focus, memory, and mood, particularly during times of stress.*
  • GI Relief: A comforting blend of botanical extracts – aloe vera, slippery elm, marshmallow root, and licorice – to calm irritation and soothe the mucous membranes of the GI tract.*
  • S.A.T.: A combination of three liver-protective botanicals including silymarin (as milk thistle phytosome), artichoke, and turmeric (as curcumin phytosome).*
  • Quercetin Complex: Support for seasonal allergy sufferers with quercetin, a plant antioxidant in phytosome form, and bromelain, a compound of protein-digesting enzymes derived from the pineapple plant.*
  • Craving and Stress Support: Contains a blend of Magnolia officinalis and Phellodendron amurense – well-known botanicals used in the practice of traditional Chinese medicine for more than 1,500 years.
  • Stress Balance: A unique botanical adaptogen and nutrient formula with ashwagandha, Asian ginseng, eleuthero, Astragalus, ginger, and licorice.*
  • Liver Cleanse: A unique combination of botanical ingredients – berberine, milk thistle, burdock, and chicory – that synergistically support liver function.*
  • EnteroMend: A unique formula that supports overall intestinal health with the amino acid L-glutamine and botanical extracts including curcumin, Boswellia, aloe vera, and guar gum fiber.*
  • Advanced Testosterone Support: Supports the body’s natural production of testosterone with botanical extracts including shilajit, ashwagandha, and luteolin phytosome.*
  • FiberMend: A soluble prebiotic fiber blend – with larch extract, guar gum, apple pectin, rice bran, and green tea phytosome – that helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels, promotes regularity, and supports optimal digestive function.*
  • Daily Greens Plus: A plethora of botanical extracts that promote physical endurance, cognitive performance, and cellular energy production,* including matcha, spirulina, kelp, moringa, watermelon seed, mango leaf, spinach, lion’s mane, chaga, maitake, reishi, shiitake, ginger, ashwagandha, lemon balm, Rhodiola, spearmint, eleuthero, pomegranate, and quercetin.