HealthForce Integrity Extracts™ Schisandra – 60 VeganCaps™

Common Name Standardized: Schisandra Other: Schizandra Botanical Name Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Bail. Plant Family: Schisandraceae Parts Used Whole fruit including the seed Overview Schisandra is a berry from the magnolia vine. Unlike other berries, schisandra is a medicinal berry that is not sweet and is full of hard-to-digest compounds; therefore, it is not eaten in its fresh or dried form like golden berries or goji berries. Schisandra is traditionally left to soak, then strained, decocted, and consumed as a tea. Schisandra is a highly ranked adaptogenic herb revered for its revitalizing and rejuvenating properties. This adaptogen has a long history of use in traditional Russian folk medicine as well as in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). It is native to Russia and northern China but can be cultivated in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 4–8.

Known as the five-taste fruit (wu wei zi) in TCM, schisandra was traditionally used to stabilize and hold in the primary energies of the body, strengthen the breath, and sharpen the mind. Schisandra was highly revered by Taoists who regarded it as the “quintessence of Chinese tonic herbs.” Schisandra is considered both a yin and a yang tonic and due to its great Chinese reputation as a youth preserver, beauty aide, and powerful sexual tonic it was a highly fancied in ancient times by the royal court and the wealthy upper middle class, especially the women.

1 History and Folklore

The local indigenous people of the Russian Far East region, the Nanai people, used schisandra berries as a folk tonic to improve their vision while night hunting as well as to ward off hunger, thirst, and exhaustion from all-day hunts.4 Schisandra’s use can be seen throughout ancient Chinese history and dates back some 2,000 years B.C. Used chiefly by Chinese royalty and astute herbalists, the focus back then was its use as a purported aphrodisiac and sexual tonic. Its other main uses were around the focus on beauty and longevity as schisandra was often pictured in ancient art as a symbol of immortality.

Schisandra is one of the first plant adaptogens to ever be studied, and the Russians have published dozens of scientific articles elucidating its pharmacological properties. Schisandra proved fruitful in studies conducted on Russian soldiers in WWII as the soldiers needed an herbal aid that could help them be more resilient to the effects of physical fatigue, mental and emotional exhaustion, spiritual misalignment, and consequently shell shock (now known as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)).

Flavor Notes And Energetics

Schisandra is both warm and dry and cooling and moistening as it is an amphoteric herb (partly one and partly the other). The energetic properties of schisandra are considered to be balanced due to it possessing all five tastes.2 Depending on a person’s constitution, schisandra will express its energetics as needed (e.g., one person may need energy, another stress relief). Channels of entry are lungs, kidneys, heart, and liver.3 Functions include astringent,