Some of the organic Aboca farms are owned and some of them are leased in the Tuscany and Umbrian Valtiberina areas. These areas cover about 600 hectares of land. They have about 60 species of medicinal herbs and 20 more species of wild species are also used.
Gaia Herbs has a research and development lab in which they have quality control and product development in this lab. Each batch of an herbal product is tested for bio-activity, microbial plate count, and heavy metals. The lab provides a Certificate of Analysis for each batch before it is bottled. This insures that the herbs have met or exceeded their specifications.
The staff in the Gaia Herb research and development labs have experience and also have Ph. D’s and they also have Natural Products Chemists. The company has natural products chemists and horticultural scientists with Ph. D’s. Gaia Herbs invests in research and academic collaborations because they want to deliver quality in all phases of their natural, pure, plant medicines, or supplements.
Gaia not only has quality control, they also have quality assurance in their products. Their Quality Assurance department is headed by Jim Grant, the company’s Quality Assurance and Regulatory Compliance Manager. They audit all operating procedures and each department is held responsible for the operating within their guidelines as specified for their department. Quality Assurance is responsible for information literature, product names, customer complaint responses, event reporting, product label warnings, and OSHA, FDA, FTC, and USDA regulations. This department carries a heavy load on their shoulders but they thrive to get the job done and to do it right.
The developing of a new product includes many teams. They first gather information worldwide on clinical studies of certain formulas of a specific product. After the formula has been evaluated for compound integrity by using eclectic, physio-medical, and naturopathic insight, it is passed to the Product Development Lab for production of models of the formula. Then more evaluating takes place to study the appearance, taste, ingredient capabilities, separation, and viscosity of the product.
Gaia Herbs does extensive studies on their products before they put them on the market to the public. They want to assure you of a quality product and a product which actually works to the best of it’s ability. Natural supplements have become a worldwide source of health and wellness for many thousands of people, without the severe side effects that they get with drugs. Natural supplements are also a fraction of the cost of drugs. If we could just get the health insurance companies to accept them as a necessity, many people could save a lot of money and the insurance premiums would not have to be so high.