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BUCKTHORN EXTRACT Product No. P0218

Also known as Rhamnus catharticus, Cascara Sagrada and Black Dogwood.

Common buckthorns are tall shrubs or trees, native to Europe and western parts of Asia, that reach 20-25 feet in height, and 10 inches in diameter. Most often they grow in a large shrub growth form, having a few to several stems from the base. The shrubs have spreading, loosely-branched crowns, with a grey to brown bark. Cutting a branch exposes a yellow sapwood and a pinkish to orange heartwood. Buckthorn bark and berries are high in anthraquinone glycosides, and resins, tannins, and lipids make up the bulk of the bark’s other ingredients. Buckthorn berries also contain flavonoids.

Buckthorn bark has been used medicinally since the 1600’s, when it was listed in a primary medical reference called the London Pharmacopoeia. Although most herbs have had a wide variety of traditional uses, later refined to a single or a few proven benefits, buckthorn bark throughout its history has been consistently used to relieve one ailment: constipation and its by-products (hemorrhoids and anal irritation).

The compounds called anthraquinones present in buckthorn have a strong purgative, laxative effect on the body. Because these compounds are powerful, before being processed into laxative products, the bark is aged for a year, or heated and dried.

Buckthorn bark may help to;