Our Sources
Organic Chinese Herbs is the Canadian distributor of Spring Wind Herbs.
Spring Wind Herbs seeks out the best quality of herbs available and we are proud to make these premium products more accessible. Spring Wind is always expanding its lines of Organic and Premium Grade herbs, and evolving their laboratory testing procedures.
Quality Evaluations
Spring Wind purchases herbs in small batches to insure freshness, and certain herbs are also vacuum packed. They obtain samples of each lot before purchase to ensure the quality meets their strict standards. Herbs must be clean, fresh and of good colour and sapor (or taste) to meet their rigorous inspection.
They use herb-specific criteria when evaluating quality. For example:
- Niu Bang Zi (Arctium seed) is best when the seed is plump and carries no seed husk
- High quality fresh Bai Zi Ren (Biotae seed) is oily and is a light-yellow colour
- Yan Hu Suo (Corydalis) is best if it is large, firm and its cross-section is golden-yellow
Rigorous Testing
Spring Wind has the most rigorous pesticide testing program in the industry. They have 2 standard testing protocols.
Pesticide Test 1 – Over 250 Pesticides Total
- Organophosphates
- Chlorinated Hydrocarbons
- Methyl Carbamates
- Organonitrogens
- Pyrethroids
Pesticide Test 2 – Over 135 Pesticides Total
- Organophosphates
- Organochlorines
- Pyrethroids
- The Pesticide Potentiator, Piperonyl Butoxide
Test Results
Spring Wind accepts only a ND (none detected) result on our pesticide tests. Their sulfur-free herbs are tested either by in-house vapor testing (limit of 1.0 ppm) or by lab titration for sulfites (ND only).
Correct species
Spring Wind puts great effort into scientifically identifying the species of the items they sell. Macroscopic and microscopic examinations are employed to compliment other organoleptic (sense-derived) data such as smell and taste in determining species identification. They use the Chinese Pharmacopeia for verification where the given herb is listed in that text. For the few herbs that require chemical analysis to reliably determine correct identification, they rely on laboratory testing.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Andrew Ellis, from Spring Wind Herbs for providing this information, and to everyone there for their continued dedication to excellent quality.
Customer Support
If you have any questions, please give us a call.
We are practitioners of Chinese Medicine and love talking about our herbs. We are practitioner-owned and run and proud to bring quality herbs and informative service to the Canadian wellness community.