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Newsletter - November 2006

First of all, very many thanks to all of the growing number of practitioner customers who have supported us during the past 12 months. This period has seen some of the greatest changes here, possibly since the days of the medieval herbalists who practiced here when this farm was part of a local Priory. Cherokee medicine man David Winston brought a new dimension to our summer gathering, which was hugely appreciated by all; top level visitors from Whitehall were received as part of a UK government regulatory impact exercise; the weather in which we work in these islands continued to mystify, enthrall and challenge; new staff and systems were introduced to solve stock problems; High Performance Liquid Chromatography was added to our already impressive in-house and unique on-farm laboratory facilities; Rutland grown products are now found all over the world and during the course of the year, we became the only GMP farm in Europe registered under the THMD. None of this would have been possible without the outstanding level of professionalism exhibited by our team, to whom I am hugely grateful.

New additions
We continue to increase the number of home grown herbs in the new catalogue. Interesting new additions include fresh home grown biodynamic organic Passiflora incarnata 25% tincture - believed to be a first in Europe. We also have a fresh biodynamic organic Geum urbanum, Berberis aquifolium, Eupatorium purpureum (gravelroot), Withania (Ashwaganda) and returning after a period out of stock, we have fresh biodynamic organic tinctures of Aesculus, Angelica arch., Apium, Chelidonium, Foeniculum, Galega, Glycyrrhiza (FE), Inula, Scutellaria baicalensis, Verbascum and many others. Organic Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi mushroom) also appears in both tincture and a dried powdered form for the first time.

Rutland has always been totally committed to maintaining the highest quality at the most reasonable price and this continues to be our driving ethos but very early on, this company decided never to compromise quality for price. Regrettably, some price rises have been forced on us by escalating external costs such as the cost of packaging (both bottles and boxes) and transport. Alcohol, previously sourced from organic sugar cane farmers almost doubled in price during the year, and a rise has been associated with GMP Quality Assurance. We have striven very hard to contain these costs, but we cannot absorb them all and although we are holding delivery charges for another 6 months, and prices of some sundries have actually gone down significantly, regrettably some price rises have been necessitated. These are reflected in the new catalogue. Despite this, our expanding practitioner client base assures us that our products continue to offer the very best value for money, which gives you total confidence that you are treating your patients with the best possible quality medicines available. More than 2,000 herbalists and companies on Rutland's books for fresh home grown products can't all be wrong!

We did encounter problems in our accounts dept. earlier this year. Please accept our sincerest apologies if you were affected by this. High level professionals were employed to get things back onto an even keel. If you would like to comment on any of our products or services, please write to me directly, or email paulchenery@rutlandbio.com

Climate, weather and quality in herbals.
The changing pattern of weather has made several aspects of our job very trying this year and our normally benevolent climate has sometimes been a disappointment. The Spring was cold and wet, delaying establishment of plants, turning within weeks to sub-Saharan temperatures and baking the ground solid. One of the noticeable effects of this was that a few species were 'forced' by the conditions, resulting in some reduced pollination. Throughout our region yields of seed crops such as corn, peas, beans and our own milk thistle were very disappointing. Harvest time then rapidly turned wet, interrupting work during August and September, pushing up the price of bread. At times like these, we are so thankful that we herbalists are working with naturally evolved systems, older than mankind itself, rather than with the 'improved' crops which are farmed for foods. Our so-called 'unimproved' varieties of plants which we use for medicines, and which have never been bred over generations for traits such as resistance, improved yields, milling consistency, and so on, retain their inherently flexible self-preservation and know how to 'keep their heads down' and are at their most impressive when conditions are against them. This is very basic to their biological 'activity' (production of secondary metabolites). With a couple of notable exceptions, we have good results in very trying conditions. Research on flowering times (a function of both weather and daylight lengths) reviewed recently in the 'Biologist' Journal, indicates that summer is becoming longer in our part of the world, although this is not a consistent experience across Europe. Herb growing in the UK seems to be generally improving, whereas areas such as the Balkans are not having such good conditions. Indeed some of our crops went wild - Plantago major took over a corner of an old meadow (next to the meadowsweet) and we had more Chamomile than we could use. By contrast to problems earlier in the year, late September through to November produced superb working conditions - the term 'vintage' springs to mind, and roots generally have been tremendous quality.

Product Specification
As part of our drive towards our new manufacturer's license, we spend a deal of effort looking at product specification. Tinctures are very difficult to define with reductionist science - and the more one looks at and learns about them, the more difficult it seems to become. Poor science based on totally unfounded speculative claims abounds in herbal medicine - particularly in matters of pharmacy. Poor science leads to compromised or even poor quality, as every herbalist knows. One of these ideas is that herbal medicines are adequately described by chemical science. Another speculative concept is that tinctures made from dried herbs are 'stronger' (in the sense of efficacy) than those from fresh herbs. To a herbalist, this follows a certain industrial logic and is a profoundly ridiculous claim, as Gerard noted as long ago at the sixteenth century. We now know that tinctures (and extracts generally) generally comprise of surfactant dispersions of components within semi-saturated, saturated or even super-saturated solutions. Paradoxically, high concentrations of some dissolved components can actually prevent solubilisation of some other compounds. Although the proportions of solutes do vary, depending on the fresh or dried status of the starting material, there is no general reason why this should increase the solubilisation of active complexes. Although it might happen in some isolated cases, logic suggests that the reverse will occur just as often. This brings us back to the point that fresh plant extracts exhibit more closely the biological activity of living plants which has evolved purposefully over millions of years.

Although it is obviously the case that the components of the medicine are what makes the whole, as most of us know, the concentrations of one, two or even more identifiable components do not always comprise markers of efficacy. It has been extremely gratifying to note that, in private conversation at least, even the regulators are becoming sceptical about such claims and now say they will act against nonsensical claims made by some marketeers - mainly foreign companies, who use poor science, or even untruths, in support of utterly speculative claims to promote their products. These pharmaceutical company tactics misinform and confuse the practitioner, and also does great disservice to the image of our profession with the UK regulators - not something about which foreign companies are concerned.

We do believe that it is important for the image of our profession as it prepares for more public attention, and for the confidence of the regulators, and moreover as a way of increasing the trust between herbalist and supplier, that good science and traditional wisdom continue to talk and walk, hand in hand to the future. Please support your local grower and may herbal medicine and all its practitioners prosper!

With all our warmest best wishes, the Rutland team.

sales@rutlandbio.com Tel: 01572 757440

Announcing, an exciting new initiative...

English Herbal Medicines (EHM) Ltd was established in 2003 in order to provide legal public access to a retail "brand" of the highest quality fresh organic herbal medicines before the THMD deadline for such products of April 30th 2004.

The EHM range included the entire range available from Rutland Bio at that time, with added 5% vegetable glycerine for improved palatability, excluding medicines not on the general sales list or Schedule 3 herbs.

As many of our practitioner customers also have shops where they sell some pre-packed bottles direct to the public, a handy, well packaged, pre-dispensed range of herbal medicines, with proper indications and guidelines, will be useful to many busy practitioners.

We are introducing this idea to you in time for the winter, with 5 of Rutland Biodynamics' most popular home-grown biodynamic organic fresh extracts available to practitioners at cost price to sell on to their customers.

Presented in robust 250 ml plastic bottles suitable for posting out, and fitted with dropper inserts for handy dispensing, the recommended retail price of these products is £17.50 per bottle. The trade price to you is £6.00 + VAT per bottle, minimum box of 12 (i.e. £72 + £12.60 VAT, rrp £180), subject to our usual terms and conditions. These can be ordered via your usual Rutland Biodynamics account at www.rutlandbio.com

Newsletter - October 2005

News from the farm...

This has been one of the best summers on the farm in 20 years and thank heavens that we have had a far better growing year than last year. Compared to last year, we have been treated not only to a relatively easy time on the farm, but also a visual feast most of the summer. New areas have been planted, reducing our dependence on outside producers and on-farm process has been much streamlined due to the development of the new warehouse. We are about to start our first, small, covered growing venture, as part of a more serious attempt to grow some endangered aand popular semi-tropical and oriental species. Working towards GMP compliance and a medicines license, has caused some pain, but overall, making the effort to comply has been a stimulating challenge for our business. In the end, the constant development and evolution of new quality systems is improving our aim, as producers of the very highest quality medicines.

New Products

This year's catalogue brings many new variations on some old themes, as well as a number of totally new additions.

Significantly more of the herbs we offer have organic certification. By popular demand following Andrew Chevallier's 2005 Hein Zeylstra memorial lecture "In praise of cool....", we have introduced a fresh Marshmallow flower extract (Althea officinalis flos 5005). We are also starting to systematically harvest the Berberis aquifolium (Oregon grape root), and are pleased to introduce a fresh biodynamic organic tincture 1:3 45% (0888).

Other new fresh biodynamic organic herbs appearing for the first time include tincture of the seed of Artcium lappa (Burdock), Ballota nigra tincture (black horehound), Lycopus virginicus fluid extract (1018) and tincture (1017) , Medicago tincture (Lucerne, or alf-alfa 6083), Oregano tincture (Corydothymus capitatus). There will soon be a Withania (Ashwaganda) fluid extract, (1099) available and modest quantities of fresh biodynamic Scutellaria baicalensis (0043) and Astragalus membraneceous (0822) will soon be available again.

With best wishes,

Paul Chenery and the Rutland team.

© Rutland Biodynamics 2005



Newsletter - June 2005

New Warehouse Now Completed
Firstly, please may we extend a heartfelt thanks, as well as our apologies for any inconvenience, to all our customers who have borne with us during the recent major extension of our facilities. Although this was to enable better stock control, the reverse occurred during the rather long-winded winter building phase, resulting in some regrettable frustration over 'out-of-stock' items. After a long winter of hammering, sawing, drilling and brick laying, we are at last starting to use the new 3000 square foot warehouse and are all looking forward to getting it well stocked before the next winter rush!

A Library of Quality Information
The infancy of our new Quality Assurance system has been interesting. There is a great amount to be learnt here, as we start to build a library of empirical quality information on the products we supply. This is to enable us to offer demonstrable proof about the quality of the products we supply to you.

Improved Safety and Quality with New Computer System
In addition, we are trialing a new computer programme which has been tailor built for our needs over the last year. This tracks every production item right from its arrival into quarantine, its release for manufacture by QC, through production, its final batch release by the QP and after, it has left, its final destination. Although this programme is one of the largest investments we have made, it is an essential requisite for safety. The programme itself and its operating systems will eventually be independently audited by the MHRA.

News From the Farm
This year we are growing on a total of 30 acres, about 20 of which is our own biodynamic land and about 10 on a nearby organic farm. Everyone is hoping for a somewhat easier year than 2004, when the land was often just too wet to work on.

Now Available from Rutland...
We have included in this catalogue several new products. These include Ribes nigrum ethanolic glycerite (made from fresh biodynamic blackcurrent buds) and which, following the lectures of J-C Lapraz, has found great favour as an adaptogen with a growing number of UK herbalists.

After some problems with supply, we are delighted once again to be able to offer a source of naturally and sustainably grown Buchu (Barosma betulina) direct from a good farming contact in South Africa. This does not yet have organic certification, although there is no reason why it should not have shortly. Bupleurum chinense (Thorowax root) has increased in popularity and Gymnema sylvestre has been requested so often, that it now appears, along with tinctures of Hydrangea arborescens and organic Olea europea fol., Paeonia lactiflora, Polygonum bistorta, Rehmania glutinosa, and Ruscus aculeatus in our catalogue for the first time.

We have increased our range of Skin Creams made with organic herbs and also our essential oils, almost all of which are now organically grown and certified.

In the sundries range, due to high demand, we now offer a 280 ml HD Polythene bottle for posting out tinctures with the minimum of wrapping and maximum safety.

Our entire catalogue, including all new products, can now be ordered on rutlandbio.com through our secure online shop. All web orders receive a 5% discount, so register now and place your next order online.

Website and Online Shop a Success
A great deal of time has gone into the new website and on-line shop. You can access this at www.rutlandbio.com The website was written by a herbalist (Helen Gestwicki MNIMH) as has been expressly designed so that the practitioner find it easy to 'get around'. Soon, the on-line shop will even be able to tell stock availability, times expected and other useful snippets.

Summer Gathering 2006
All this has kept us so busy that there is no summer jamboree planned at present. We are, however, delighted that David Winston has agreed to join us from America next year and Rutland eagerly anticipates the visit.

Keep In Touch
We look forward to continuing to serve the herbal profession during the coming years and hope that you will continue to be very pleased with the products we supply. We are always keen to hear your comments - good or bad - so please do not hesitate to let us know, by any means, including to: comments@rutlandbio.com

With best wishes,

Paul Chenery and the Rutland team.

© Rutland Biodynamics 2005



Rutlandbio Online Shop Launch - April 2005

We are pleased to announce the launch of Rutlandbio into the digital age with our new online ordering system. Rutland customers can now log onto www.rutlandbio.com/eshop and place their orders on the internet, using the fully secure online shop environment. Our full catalogue is available including fresh and standard tinctures, fluid extracts, creams, dried herbs, filled capsules, bottles, books and much more!

To celebrate the launch of the shop, we are offering a 5% discount on all orders. Simply sign up for a customer account, and within 2 days, we'll activate your account and you can place your first order. Your 5% discount will then be taken off the net value when we process your order.

The shop itself is really simple to use, with a comprehensive search facility and clearly titled categories to make it easy for you to find the herbal products you need. The fully secure and encrypted checkout system takes you through the whole process of placing your order, and you will be updated on the progress of your order with regular emails.

We hope you'll visit us soon and take advantage of the introductory 5% discount offer at www.rutlandbio.com/eshop.

© Rutland Biodynamics 2005

© Rutland Biodynamics 2007



2004 Summer Gathering

pdf Christopher Hedley's Keynote speech