A liquid herbal extract has many advantages over the conventional solid herbal dosage form because a liquid herbal extract is much rapidly absorbed than the solid form because the solid in the stomach has to dissolve and then gets absorbed; whereas the liquid herbal form is immediately absorbed. The dose of the liquid extract can be controlled i.e. increased or decreased as per the desire of the person using it.
A liquid herbal extract can have a large amount of active phytochemical constituents concentrated in a very small volume of extract, whereas a solid dosage like Churna will have only a limited amount of active constituents which on consumption will not be fully absorbed in the body. An herbal churna or powder will have a lot of vegetative contains which are not required like large amounts of cellulose, fibers, in which the active constituents are present. These fibers are not really required and cause unwanted bloating, by absorbing water and swelling.
The amount of active constituents present is also little and not all of it is absorbed by the body because the body has to extract all the components out of solids. Where as in a liquid herbal extract all the active photochemical contents have been extracted and concentrated in a very small amount of liquid. As the extraction job has already been done the body can rapidly absorb the extract, which has a higher level of active phytochemical constituents compared to the single solid dosage form.
This is also advantageous for people who have a difficult in swallowing tablets or churnas, like elderly people or young children.
Another major advantage with taking this type of herbal extract is the way it is formulated. Generally a solid dosage like churna is ment to be taken with either Jaggery, Milk, Honey, Ghee etc.. These are all but vehicles of different nature for extraction of the active constituents from the churna. This is because in a herbal powder, there are various constituents of different solubility’s, some dissolve in alcohol, some in water, some in fats like milk or ghee, some in sugar or jaggery.
This is because of the nature of the constituents which are either lipophilic or hydrophilic, i.e. either fat loving or water loving.
When a solid dosage like churna or herbal powder is consumed it is not possible for the body to extract all the active constituents from the powder, in a short amount of time, because they are later on eliminated from the body. The absorption may also vary on the amount of food present in the stomach and numerous factors etc..
The major advantage of this extracts is that they have been concentrated and reduced to a very small amount of liquid and then combined with Water, Fructose, and Alcohol and vegetabilised salts. All these contribute to an enhanced solubility and enhanced absorption in the body to give a maximum effect. Thus the extract contains a hydrophilic vehicle like water and vegetabilised salts for water soluble components and lipophilic vehicles like alcohol and fructose for fat soluble components. Thus there is a total absorption of all the active constituents in this type of extract.