Percentages and extract

Percentages and extract of mountain Arnica

The world of Arnica products is a babel of percentages and advertising slogans which confuse the consumer. On the shelves of pharmacies, para-pharmacies, and herbalist's shops, it is easy to find products with labels such as "Arnica 90%" or even "Arnica 98%", right up to the famous "Arnica for horses" or "Arnica for horses for human use".

But are you sure that these are really the best products, the most effective and those which have the highest concentration of functional substances?

By analysing this aspect in detail, we can discover how to judge the quality and effectiveness of a product correctly, in order to choose the best one.

Firstly, it is important to understand that those percentages refer to the amount of Arnica extract present in the product.

An Arnica product, however, should be judged by the quality of the extract used to make it, not the quantity used to make it.

A product consisting of a small percentage of a good extract is far better than a product consisting of an extremely high percentage of a bad extract.

Quantity or quality?

Most companies producing mountain Arnica cosmetics talk about the QUANTITY (e.g., 90%) of the extract in their products, but it is the QUALITY (given by the title) of the extract that makes the difference.

Titration of the extract

The validity of a plant extract depends on the raw material and on the method of extraction used to obtain it. But what is it that tells us the actual quality? The title.

What should be looked for in an extract to establish its title? It depends. An extract of mountain Arnica has a rich Phyto-complex. To judge its concentration and efficacy, one usually looks for the presence of sesquiterpene lactones such as Helenalin and Dihydrohelenalin. The sesquiterpene lactones are the substances that mostly characterise mountain Arnica, and to which the main therapeutic activities are attributed.

If a product is made from an UNTITLED extract, there is no point in comparing percentages.

The title

Titrating an extract means precisely determining the concentration of the functional active ingredients that are present in it.

This process, which is carried out by means of specific laboratory analyses, is fundamental to understand the effectiveness of a product.

Our extract

Our extract, the result of years of study and research, is obtained using the supercritical fluid extraction technique, a sophisticated green technology that enables the highest concentration of functional substances to be obtained.

This extraction method involves the use of a special machine which uses a natural gas as a solvent.

The gas, pressurised and brought to a supercritical state, is circulated in the machine, and pushed through the plant matrix, our mountain Arnica flowers are grown organically in Piancavallo and are dried naturally.

In the supercritical state, the gas acquires a density comparable to that of a liquid but retains a permeability similar to that of its initial state. This allows it to penetrate the matrix (the flowers) completely and pass through it, taking all its related substances with it.

Depending on the set pressure and temperature parameters, certain molecules or groups of molecules can be extracted selectively. At the end of the process, when the pressure precipitates, a gas-free and highly concentrated compound is obtained.

Estratto secco supercritico Arnica montana Piancavallo ARMO1191

Our extract

The titration analyses conducted by the University of Padua laboratory on our extract has revealed the presence of 12% sesquiterpene lactones, a quantity three to four times higher than the best titrated extracts currently on the market (3-4% sesquiterpene lactones).

Which is the most concentrated Arnica product?

Years of study, experimentation and research have led us to obtain the best mountain Arnica creams and massage oils currently on the market. THE MOST HIGHLY CONCENTRATED.

Our labels do not report astronomical percentages or winking slogans, we do not need this because our products speak for themselves.

There is certainly a great amount of “poetry” in our work, but we know that in the end the numbers tell the truth, because they give us the actual idea of the value of our products.

However, we like to use numbers in a scientific way, moving away from the "war of the highest percentage" that characterises the world of Arnica products.

Considering that our best competitors claim to use 1% of a 3-4% titrated extract in their commercial products, and that we use 0.5% of our 12% titrated extract, we can claim that our products contain up to 50% more active ingredient than our best competitors' products.

Competitors who do not use titrated extracts can say and write whatever they please on the label, but the truth is that their products are simply NOT COMPARABLE with ours.

Did you know?

Did you know that both our ARMOULTRA and ARMOHOT creams contain around 35 fresh mountain Arnica flowers, corresponding to a weight of 50g?

Buy ARMOULTRA