Nature's Sunshine Statement on Synthetic vs. Natural

By Sarah Eliason, NSP Scientist

Nature's Sunshine Products is committed to having the best herbs, vitamins, and supplements from 100% natural sources. NSP's vitamins, hormones, and other organic compounds from plant, animals, and/or microbes are all natural. Many of Nature's Sunshine nutrients are extracted from fruit and vegetable sources. Some are obtained using microbial fermentation.

For example, NSP B vitamins are obtained using microbial fermentation. We isolate the B vitamins from the yeast and get rid of the excess yeast. Most fat-soluble vitamins come from natural vegetable or fish oils. The components used in NSP vitamin products are carefully selected and analyzed by our Quality Assurance / Research & Development departments to be sure that they are true, natural materials.

It is not always possible to tell if a compound is synthetic or natural simply by looking at the name. For example, ascorbic acid is simply another name for vitamin C. Vitamin C is ascorbic acid whether naturally or synthetically derived. Ascorbic acid can be made synthetically, but can also be extracted from natural plant sources. As other examples, thiamine is another name for vitamin B1, riboflavin is another name for B2, cholecalciferol is another name for vitamin D, etc. The more scientific names are not always an indication of the source of the vitamin.

You can sometimes tell if compounds are natural or synthetic by their names. An example is vitamin E. The "l" in dl-alpha tocopherol indicates that the compound is synthetic. It has been proven that natural vitamin E (d-alpha tocopherol) has twice the activity of synthetic (dl-alpha). Large amounts of the l-form of vitamin E may inhibit the absorption of the natural form.

Nature's Sunshine uses isolated, individual vitamins in many of our supplements. These are not considered to be whole food sources. However, this does not mean that our vitamins are synthetic. Our vitamins are extracted and isolated from natural sources. There is a whole food component in many of the vitamin products, including products with the SynerPro base. Each SynerPro combination comes in a natural herb base consisting of dehydrated broccoli, carrot, red beet, rosemary, tomato, turmeric, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, grapefruit and lemon bioflavonoids and hesperidin.

Nature's Sunshine does include complete vitamin complexes in most supplements rather than isolated vitamins. For example, our Vitamin E Complete with Selenium contains alpha, beta, gamma, and delta tocopherol, as well as alpha, beta, gamma and delta tocotrienols, rather than isolated alpha tocopherol as is found in most vitamin E supplements. The tocopherols come from pressed soybeans and the tocotrienols come from annatto. Nature's Sunshine Vitamin E provides two families of metabolically active compounds that are known generically as vitamin E. Many vitamin E products on the market contain only one or two of these compounds.

Another example of providing complexes rather than isolated ingredients is vitamin C. Our vitamin C is derived from natural plant sources. It is available in all of our multiple vitamin & mineral supplements, other supplements, and as an individual vitamin. NSP includes other complexes found naturally with vitamin C in our formulations.

Vitamin C Chewable provides vitamin C plus whole orange juice and rose hips to provide the various nutrients that aid in vitamin C's functions. Our Vitamin C Citrus Bioflavonoids and Vitamin C Time-Release provide vitamin C plus bioflavonoids, hesperidin complex, rutin and rose hips extract. These other compounds are commonly found with vitamin C in nature and may increase the bioavailability of vitamin C.

NSP conducts independent testing to ensure that we provide high quality products. We meticulously test all raw materials and finished products. In all, we use more than 300 tests and procedures to ensure the quality of the raw materials we use and the finished products we sell. A recent expansion of our manufacturing facility enables us to manufacture products following pharmaceutical grade GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices).

Nature's Sunshine is confident in the quality of our products because of our extensive testing.

NSP was selected by National Outlook magazine as the "Manufacturer of the Year" for 2002. Nutritional Outlook is a leading monthly magazine serving the nutritional industry, analyzing developments in regulations, ingredients, quality control, manufacturing technology, packaging, marketing, and new products from the manufacturer's perspective.

Sarah Eliason
NSP Scientist
Health Sciences Department