About J.R. Laboratories, Inc.

Pragmatic. The herbs we use to make our concentrates are rich in color, fragrance, and flavor. Our sources for raw herbs are Asia natural and Mayway. We think that Mayway’s nitrogen flushed packages are very helpful. While chemical analysis cannot be assumed reliable beyond question, we welcome the effort. Our suppliers understand that we check herbs with precision and that reputations are on the line. Many people have for decades been aware of the problem of sulphur added to dried fruits. Sulphur, a preservative, is also unacceptable on the herbs we use. Rancid and moldy herbs are also unacceptable and to prevent this, they must be kept very dry and away from atmospheric oxygen. Fresher herbs without sulphur are not hard to find and those are the herbs we use exclusively. Before herb quality improved in recent years, we grew a number of them ourselves. How do we guard against sulphur, other overt impurities, and filler, junk-quality herbs sneaking in? The size of each batch we make is less than the size of a soup that a small restaurant might make for the day. So we can and we do, with pleasure, look over each herb like a master chef at a fine restaurant looks over each vegetable. -A factory worker receiving a truck load of vegetables (or herbs) for the mass-manufacture of 10,000 packaged soup mixes cannot be so meticulous. For us, quality control includes creating an eminently potent concentrate, not drying it, and immediately stabilizing it with a preservative (alcohol).

For people who habitually stick their nose in packaged foods, it is not unusual to discover rancid (oxidized/stale) chips, pasta, cereal, et al., once in a while. Rancidity occurs mostly in items that were in a powder form mid processing and that do not contain preservatives. Inherently then, this is a real problem with dry herbal extract concentrates. It can reduce them to sawdust-like potency or transform them into free-radical toxins. Extract powders are always suspect. Pills presumably can be safer but their true character is hidden. In a dried extract, the oil from the seeds of suan zao ren/zizzyphus spinosa, gua lou ren/trichosanthes, and nan xing ren/pruni arnenica, to name just a few, are turning rancid from the moment they’re exposed to atmospheric oxygen –the finer the powder, the more surface area is susceptible. As one practitioner put it, “Once, after opening a bottle of tao ren/persica concentrated extract powder and smelling the rancidity, I almost dropped dead right there”. Heard of Mu li/oyster shell concentrate smelling like diesel fuel? As conscientious acupuncturists, we are trained to examine raw herbs for rancidity and impurities by taste, smell, and visually before cooking regardless of any certifications or guarantees. Oddly, educators overlook concentrated extract scrutiny yet it’s simple to do; smell it first, make a tea, then taste it. -Comparing 2 reveals the superior one.

Correctly cooking a Chinese tea is Childs play; but crafting a tea concentrate without ruining it is like crafting a samurai sword. Everyone preparing JRL herbal concentrates has a master’s degree in TCM. We have experienced 20 years of obsessive attention to quality control. Today, we make the same volume as we did 20 years ago; all advances have increased potency and purity. Thus, we can only supply a small number of practitioners but we are confident that the concentrates we make are the closest thing to a raw herb tea. Its potent flavor is a tangible indication of the control of quality.

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