Natural - natural scene
Natural - natural scene, nature's playground such as the beach the mountains, virgin woods and forests, beautiful lakes and so on. It also reminds us of natural substances, smells of flowers, the air just after rain, animals in their natural habitat and so on.
When it comes to products, be they for consumption or personal care, we tend to think of 'natural flavours' as opposed to artificial flavouring, natural preservatives versus artificial ones, but what is a natural ingredient and how could we define it better?
Here is where things get a little murky because there are many ways we can think of a substance as being natural or not natural. For example, let's use my favourite - Aspirin. The active ingredient in Aspirin tables is Salicylic acid. Salicylic acid is naturally found in the bark of the White Willow tree. Thus, Salicylic acid is a natural substance and if extracted from the bark, rather than recreated synthetically in a laboratory, you could say this is a natural product. But is it?
Strictly speaking a liquid made from say water and Salicylic acid, would be natural and fit the definition of 'as found in nature', but let's look at another way to get the same therapeutic effect from the properties of the White Willow bark.
Herbal medicine uses the whole bark and utilises traditional methods to extract the ingredients from the bark. One of these ingredients is the Salicylic acid, but it's just one of the ingredients. There are many more which do not help to numb pain or do very much to help relieve pain, but they do work on balancing the effects of Salicylic acid.
We know that this acid can and does irritate the lining of the Stomach and that is why many of the companies that make Aspirin will put warnings on their labels and make suggestions of taking Aspirin with food and so on. Using the whole extract however, will include the modifying ingredients from the bark, which will protect the Stomach's lining and yet the Salicylic acid will still work on reducing the pain.
Now, which do you think is the 'natural' product? The one that uses a single naturally derived ingredient in a liquid, or the other one, which uses the more complete set of ingredients found in the White Willow bark? This point could be debated forever and both these could be called natural, depending on YOUR DEFINITION
When it comes to products, be they for consumption or personal care, we tend to think of 'natural flavours' as opposed to artificial flavouring, natural preservatives versus artificial ones, but what is a natural ingredient and how could we define it better?
Here is where things get a little murky because there are many ways we can think of a substance as being natural or not natural. For example, let's use my favourite - Aspirin. The active ingredient in Aspirin tables is Salicylic acid. Salicylic acid is naturally found in the bark of the White Willow tree. Thus, Salicylic acid is a natural substance and if extracted from the bark, rather than recreated synthetically in a laboratory, you could say this is a natural product. But is it?
Strictly speaking a liquid made from say water and Salicylic acid, would be natural and fit the definition of 'as found in nature', but let's look at another way to get the same therapeutic effect from the properties of the White Willow bark.
Herbal medicine uses the whole bark and utilises traditional methods to extract the ingredients from the bark. One of these ingredients is the Salicylic acid, but it's just one of the ingredients. There are many more which do not help to numb pain or do very much to help relieve pain, but they do work on balancing the effects of Salicylic acid.
We know that this acid can and does irritate the lining of the Stomach and that is why many of the companies that make Aspirin will put warnings on their labels and make suggestions of taking Aspirin with food and so on. Using the whole extract however, will include the modifying ingredients from the bark, which will protect the Stomach's lining and yet the Salicylic acid will still work on reducing the pain.
Now, which do you think is the 'natural' product? The one that uses a single naturally derived ingredient in a liquid, or the other one, which uses the more complete set of ingredients found in the White Willow bark? This point could be debated forever and both these could be called natural, depending on YOUR DEFINITION
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