Our Commitment to Quality
For more than 50 years, we have been committed to providing products of the highest quality. We have carefully chosen exceptional manufacturing partners to create our products. Starting materials are tested and species verified, then processed according to strict manufacturing specifications. Extensive laboratory testing throughout the process confirms quality standards are met, and results are routinely verified by laboratory testing conducted in the US. The quality, processing and testing standards of our products are based on requirements outlined in the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China to ensure that our products are medicine grade. Our commitment to quality in every aspect has resulted in safe, high quality products you and your patients have trusted since 1969.
Field to Package Traceability
All Plum Flower™ and Bamboo Pharmacy™ herbal products include a batch or lot number on the package or bottle. This number allows us to trace every herbal ingredient from the farm where it was grown to the package on your shelf. This field to package traceability helps us to continue our improvements in growing and manufacturing along with improving the quality of our products. Each batch has a Certificate of Analysis available providing our customers with the quality standards specific to that batch. Our full disclosure of our testing results provides you with assurance that every batch exceeds our strict quality standards.
Geoauthentic Growing
Our herbs are grown by small, carefully tended family farms, many passed down through the generations, along with their herb growing expertise. The Mayway herb masters visit farms more than 300 days each year to check on the quality of our crops, educate our growers on pesticide elimination and sustainable growing techniques, and to arrange for deliveries post-harvest. We utilize geoauthentic growing, also known as daodi. Growing our herbs in their native region gives them the highest efficacy rate.
Raw Material Selection
Upon receipt at the manufacturing plant, all herbs are inspected for species validation according to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia or government accepted Materia Medicas. They are then quality checked and verified for proper maturity before they can be used in Mayway's products. Once verified, the herbs are washed, dried, and processed into our herbal products whether raw herbs, extract powders, or pills and tablets.
Manufacturing
Raw Herbs
Inspection is conducted by highly trained staff using macroscopic, microscopic, and sometimes thin layer chromatography (TLC) means to confirm species. Herbs are also tested for sulfur dioxide residues and for certain pesticide residues to ensure safety and quality. Finished batches are subjected to a minimum of 15 tests for quality assurance checking again for species verification, moisture content, heavy metal levels, and microbial contamination. Batches that do not meet Mayway's stringent standards are rejected. Mayway's proprietary cutting techniques along with nitrogen-injected vacuum packaging allow us to provide our customers with Plum Flower™ Premier Quality™ Chinese Herbs that are sulfur-free and naturally preserved.
Teapill Manufacturing
The creation of a Plum Flower™ or Bamboo Pharmacy™ teapill begins with an herbal formula decocted at a low, precisely controlled temperature. Our extractors are vacuum-sealed ensuring that no active ingredients or essential oils are lost during the decoction process. The formula is pumped into a condensor where it is contentrated into a paste and formed into an herbal dough. Cut into small balls, they are then spun into our teapills and coated with a fine layer of confectioner's wax for easier swallowing and as a natural preservative. Finished batches are then put through a battery of tests for active ingredient constituents, moisture content, disintegration time, heavy metals, and microbial contamination to verify all teapills exceed Mayway's quality standards for purity and safety.
Tablet Manufacturing
Similar to the creation of teapills, Plum Flower™ and Bamboo Pharmacy™ tablets also begin with a low, precisely controlled temperature of an herbal decoction. The formula is pumped into a condensor where it is concentrated into a paste and formed into an herbal dough. The dough is then pressed into the shape of our tablets with carefully controlled pressure to ensure appropriate dissolution rate and absorption time when ingested. When necessary, a minimal amount of excipients may be used to assist with the manufacturing process of the sometimes sticky herbal dough to allow for extraction from our stainless steel equipment. Finished batches are then put through a battery of tests for active ingredient constituents, moisture content, disintegration time, heavy metals, and microbial contamination to verify all tablets exceed Mayway's quality standards for purity and safety.
Extract Powder Manufacturing
The manufacturing of Plum Flower™ extract powders begins with the decoction of a single herb or formula at a low, precisely controlled temperature.The extracted liquid is pumped into heated condensers to evaporate excess water until the extract reaches an ideal density. The concentrated liquid is pumped to a spray dryer, where the liquid is atomized into a mist and introduced into the spray–drying tower, within which is a helix of hot air. As the herbal mist makes contact with the heated air, the water content evaporates, and the solids in the extract become small particles and spiral to the bottom of the tower in a matter of seconds. Each batch of finished powder is inspected for moisture content, dissolution, heavy metals, and microbial contamination to ensure all extract powders exceed Mayway's quality standards.
While our extract powder formulas do not contain any exipients, some of our individual herb extract powders may contain minimal amounts of pharmaceutical-grade, non-GMO corn-based dextrin. This is because some herbs do not have the needed substance to form a powder when extracted and dried and an excipient is necessary to create the form of an extract powder.
Infusion Manufacturing
Infusions are herbal extracts of single herbs or formulas manufactured similarly to extract powders, but they are made into a granule rather than a powder. Infusions contain sugar in varying amounts depending on the formula. The sweetened infusion medium makes them more palatable, easy to administer, and simple to reconstitute into a tea when mixed with hot water. Many of the infusions offered by Mayway come from the Guangzhou Qixing Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., an internationally GMP certified manufacturer and the proud producer of Star Ring® Brand.
Product Excipients
Mayway is committed to using as few food additives in the preparation of our products as possible. However, we are sometimes compelled to use excipients in certain products to ensure their quality and effectiveness. Excipients are ingredients that aid in the manufacture of a quality medicinal-grade product, often facilitating optimal stability, dissolution, and absorption, and can help to form, stabilize and protect active substances.
For example, many of our teapills contain botanical wax as an added ingredient. By coating our teapills with wax, we are able to preserve the herbal ingredients from deterioration due to moisture in the air. The thin wax coating also allows for easier swallowing of the product. Other ingredients may be used as binding agents, as a glidant to keep the product from sticking together during manufacturing, or as a stabilizer.
Though some of our products will include an "other ingredients" list, on average these ingredients make up less than 1% of the net weight of the product. Our scientists and manufacturing experts have worked for decades to minimize our excipients to provide you with rich, potent herbal products.