The guide helps explain the product and does not replace professional advice.

Article

Dried material and extracts: reading labels

On this page

Dried material, powder and dry extract are not interchangeable descriptions. Powder describes a physical form; understanding the ingredient also requires the species, fungal part and declared composition.

  • Dry does not rule out an extract.
  • A material-to-extract ratio is not a measurement of clinical effect.

Form and origin

EMA terminology distinguishes starting material from preparations derived from it. The guideline concerns EU herbal medicines and includes fungi in its definitions. Here it explains terms, not whether any particular product is a registered medicine or meets local rules.

  • Read species, fungal part and form as separate characteristics.

What a ratio describes

DER relates starting material to the resulting preparation. Ask whether it describes an extract without excipients or a finished ingredient. The ratio alone cannot specify every compound, establish that two compositions match, or rank products by an expected outcome.

  • Check carriers and other added components in the composition description.

A percentage needs a named measurement

Total polysaccharides and beta-glucan are not identical analytical measures. McCleary and Draga studied glucan measurement, including differences between methods. Comparing percentages requires the same defined measurement, units and reporting basis. Without those details, an apparently precise number remains incomplete.

  • Measured content cannot replace separate evidence about outcomes in humans.
Ratio

Starting material relative to preparation.

Analysis

A specified measurement of composition.

Sources

Back to topics