One of the category-spanning trends to affect the functional food and supplement industries recently is the appeal of ethnic ingredients. Consumers are fascinated by stories about traditional uses of plants in faraway lands. Much like the adage, “the grass grows greener on the other side of the street,”  consumers connect plants that hail from distant shores with better health and more effectiveness.

The growing popularity of ethnic botanicals leads business entrepreneurs to seek out herbal remedies based on established ethnic medicinal traditions. One example is the Sprunk-Jansen herbal medicine company, established by Erik Sprunk-Jansen in 2004, which was recently awarded the prestigious Frost & Sullivan Entrepreneurial Company Award. “Used in the right way, herbal remedies are extremely valuable,” said Mr. Sprunk-Jansen.  “We don’t believe it’s better than conventional medicine and we don’t class it as a competitor. It works differently, with different effects, so it’s complementary.”

Arabic Botanicals

With the help of a branding expert, Sprunk-Jansen is developing and marketing a growing portfolio of supplements and herbal remedies based on Greek and Middle Eastern medicinal traditions. The approach is considered by Frost & Sullivan as having  “successfully identified excellent opportunities in a unique and growing market.”

Historically, the Arabic healing traditions had a significant influence on the development of European herbalism. Many herbs used in Europe today gained credibility through the Greek-Arabic tradition.

The Arab scholar Avicenna scribed the Romans’ five-volume canon that was the authoritative medical text from Pakistan to Germany from 1000 to 1700.

“European herbalism until the 12th century was relatively primitive and nonprofessional,” said Stephen Fulder, PhD, author of The Handbook of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (William Heinemann, 1997).  “Country people or priests would treat diseases using single herbs with a strong Christian basis. Arabic medicine brought a large range of new herbs, a sophisticated and rational system and theory of medicine and the knowledge to build complex formulations of several herbs properly prepared for maximum therapeutic effect.”

Examples of botanicals from Arabic ethnic tradition include caper, wild mint, nettle, cumin, lady’s mantle, salt bush and black cumin.

Malaysian Botanicals

Another example of ethnic botanicals comes from Biotropics Malaysia, a Kuala-Lumpur-based company that is marketing products based on the Malaysian Ramuan tradition. Ramuan is a Malay concept for a harmony of ingredients; Ramuan tradition holds that outer beauty is a manifestation of inner health and balance. Ramuan came from the cultural cross-pollination of Indian Ayurvedics, Chinese herbalists and Malay healing customs that inspired Biotropics’ development of holistic health and beauty products created from carefully selected blends of natural health promoting plants and herbs.

Biotropics offers innovative herbal-based products, with a product line ranging from standardized extracts and herbal teas to dietary supplements and personal care. The company also continuously develops ingredients for nutraceutical, functional food and cosmeceutical applications, as well as for herbal medicines and botanical drugs.

Examples of Malysian botanicals with a tradition of being used in Ramuan are Kacip Fatimah (Labisia pumila) and Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma longifolia). Both plants are specifically used in men’s and women’s health products.

Ethnic Appeal with Proven Safety

The appeal of these ancient healing traditions, apart from being exotic (to European consumers at least), lies in the fact that the plants used have been proven—through generations of use—to be safe, and that their side effects, if any, are very well known and documented, along with maximum safe dosages. This increases consumer confidence in these ethnic botanicals’ safety and efficacy. Consumers don’t expect any nasty surprises from plants that have been used for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years, whereas synthetic drugs invariably cause side effects.

The above examples show that there is still significant opportunity for new product development. Instead of investing in the search for unknown plants that are still waiting to be discovered by science, why not begin with locally known ethnic botanicals and market them to a grateful consumer base elsewhere?