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What? Why? And How? of Standardized Botanical Powders Dr. Raina Raj Marketing Head, Natural Remedies Pvt Ltd powders to ensure high efficiency and consistency in each batch. This article series will take the readers through a journey of rigorous standardization process ofstandardized botanical powders (SBPs) that begins at the grassroot through the procurement of raw material by supervised contract farming or other means;assurance of evidencebacked consistency in quality until its packaging before reaching the end-user. The current article shall provide in-depth knowledge orgofwhat SBPs are; and their benefits in the poultry diet? What are Standardized Botanical Powders (SBPs)?
Dr. Raina Raj The future of the animal food industry is invested in the organic revolution, due to the worldwide awareness of the health benefits associated with holistic living. The natural supplement industry is foreseeing a huge surge for evidence-based scientific herbal products. This growing market demands exceptionally high-quality and consistently efficient natural products. One of the major issues in assuring the consistent quality of herbal products is the natural variation of endogenous phytochemicals that occur in plants. The phytochemical "fingerprint" of a particular species of plants can vary drastically depending on the age of the plant, soil conditions, weather conditions, farming practices, time of harvest, geographical location, post-harvest processing, and many other factors, leading to inconsistent results ofthe final herbal products. Thesolution to this is by standardization of the product during manufacturing. Our intention through a series of articles is to provide evidence on what is? And why is it? There a mandatory need for standardization of herbal
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Standardized Botanical Powders (SBPs) are herbal powders whose specific phytochemical active concentrations are standardized with minimal variation, to ensure efficient phyto-active function in t h e a n i m a l 's b o d y. T h r o u g h standardization of botanical powders, the product can be monitored for consistency and it provides the expected results in the animals. Processing of Standardized Botanical Powders Botanicals are processed in different ways as shown in Figure 1 depending upon the end-use and also, sometimes,
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depending on the inherent nature of the botanical itself. Let us take the example of W i t h a n i a s o m n i f e r a k n o w n a s “Ashwagandha” in Ayurveda; the phytoactives are present in its roots. The dried roots are powdered finely to produce Ashwagandha straight powder. This powder is then standardized with reference to the phytochemical markers chosen; this would also be the constituent that is responsible for its botanical effect in the body. The standardization process of the phytochemical assures consistency in its biological effects in each batch, and these are referred to as SBPs. Figure1: Schematic representation of processing of botanicals during manufacture Why are SBPs a more holistic way to approach phytochemical supplementation? Phytochemicals like alkaloids, terpenes, phenolic compounds, and flavonoids are produced by the plants for self-defence and are stored in a specialized organelle known as the vacuole, which is encapsulated by a membrane known as tonoplast (Figure 2). Once the SBP is fed to the animal, the tonoplast disintegrates in the gut of the animals, which in turn releases the
Poultry Planner | Vol. 23 | No.08 | August - 2021
