Nature's Laboratory: A One Stop Shop for Quality and Sustainable Natural Medicine in the UK

21 October 2024

Nature's Laboratory - Parent of High Quality Natural Health & Skincare Brands

* Photo above - our High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC machine) with PDA detector

Our Quality Natural Health & Skincare Brands

Nature’s Laboratory, through its distinct brands, has been serving the herbal and health community in the United Kingdom for more than two decades.

1. Herbal Apothecary (the largest range of organic and non-organic western, Chinese and Ayurvedic herbs in cut / whole herb / tincture / fluid extract / non-alcoholic liquid and / or capsules) https://herbalapothecaryuk.com/

2. BeeVital (propolis and other bee products for skin, oral care and whole health), https://beevitalpropolis.com/

3. Sweet Cecily’s (handmade natural skin care range) https://sweetcecilys.com/

4. Whitby Tea Company (herbal teas) https://herbalapothecaryuk.com/collections/herbal-tea.

Nature's Laboratory's Quality Systems

We, as a quality manufacturer for many years, have established systems to make sure we supply quality medicines to practitioners and consumers.

Our certifications

Quality Management System:

We have certifications which include -

ISO9001:2015 (by CQS) which focuses on the quality management system;
Organic certification (by the Biodynamic Association) which focuses on traceability and reconciliation
HerbMark certification (British Herbal Medicine Association) – a standard established to deliver quality medicines by UK herbal medicine manufacturers.
Informed – certification audit programme, by the LGC Group, for Sports Products.

Download our certification using following link https://herbalapothecaryuk.com/pages/quality.

Our Quality Management & Improvement Systems

Supplier approval mechanism – We purchase our herbs from approved suppliers. Our suppliers go through a screening process whereby the supplier completes a questionnaire and provides copies of quality standards and certification. Based on our experience with the suppliers, we rank them as a low risk or high-risk supplier. We prioritise purchase from low-risk suppliers.
Non-compliance: As a part of ISO9001 we have established a rigorous system to handle non-compliance which includes internal, customer complaints and external (supplier/courier services). As we have been stringent on the quality of herbs we accept, our suppliers have responded positively over the years.
Quality Checks on Incoming herbs - Incoming goods, particularly herbs, go through a rigorous quality check before they are available for production or repacking, to be sent to our customers. Nature’s Laboratory Ltd. has slowly built a herbarium over the last four years where we preserve at least five old batches of herbs for our reference. Dr. Shankar Katekhaye and Dr. Bhagyashree Kamble, both PhD in Pharmacognosy and phytochemistry certify our herbs identify and quality. Our research laboratory is equipped with an HPLC and microscope to support our work in this area. Microscope.
Investment in a powdering facility: We have invested in a powdering facility. This permits us to purchase whole or cut herbs to powder ourselves. This makes organoleptic authentication of herbs much better. Powders are difficult to authenticate and to assess their quality.
Positive release of finished product: We have implemented the positive release of products in our system. This means our products are booked on the system for sale only after they have been passed through our quality check. We have now implemented QR code to our product labels (herbs and products thereof) where consumer can scan and download a Certificate of Analysis (CoA) on their phone or any other device. The CoA covers information on the Country of Origin, Best Before Date, Batch Date, Plant Part & Biological Name etc.
Informed sports certified manufacturer: We are an Informed sports audited manufacturer. This means we can handle the production of products which are used by professional athletes. Our robust production processes, cleaning protocols and traceability helps us to avoid cross-contamination in the production process.
Open to audit by our suppliers and contract customers: For example, we have been audited by our trade customer Kerry Foods who have approved us as a preferred supplier, for certain ingredients.
Open Day / Discovery Day: For the previous two years we have been welcoming local natural medicine enthusiasts and our customers, including students and herbal practitioners, to our facility to see what we make and how we make it. This has given confidence to our customers that we are a genuine and transparent company, passionate about delivering authentic and quality herbal products. Subscribe to our newsletter if you would like to keep in touch with us and find out about our next event.
Products with schedule 20, Annexure-II : We have positively responded to the BHMA guidance on the uniform alcohol strength and herb to solvent ratio for the schedule 20 list of herbs being sold in the United Kingdom. This is to avoid products of different potencies being available to the consumer and practitioners. See more details of this list on https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/list-of-banned-or-restricted-herbal-ingredients-for-medicinal-use/banned-and-restricted-herbal-ingredients.

Sustainability

Sustainable supply chains: We have developed a contract with Ruskin Mill Trust (https://rmt.org/clervaux-garden-school/) to grow biodynamically grown herbs locally. We are expanding the list of herbs we purchase from them.
Replacing Endangered Herbs: We make efforts to replace the endangered herbs from our products and motivate our customers to choose alternatives which are not endangered. For example, Aloe Ferox is listed on CITES Appendix II (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). We have suggested to our contract customers to explore using Rhubarb instead and they responded positively. We have two PhD- level trained scientists and a Medical Herbalist to assist us in this process.
Diversifying & localising our supply chains: We have diversified our supply chains and made efforts to purchase from suppliers closer to home. This includes herbs grown closer to us, and propolis, for our BeeVital products, from a European supplier in addition to a USA based supplier. Also, over the years, we have been increasing awareness amongst UK beekeepers about propolis and its collection within the UK.
Our Organic herbs: Our Organic Herbs (Cut/Powder) and Tinctures are procured from a supplier within the UK which is Fair Trade Certified.

Keep in touch!

If you would like to keep in touch with us, through our Herbal Apothecary brand, and receive updates from us, please join our mailing list at https://herbalapothecaryuk.com