Echinacea Purpurea Magna/Magma

- Additives and More Cautions

Do you mean echinacea purpurea magma? I couldn't find any products called echinacea purpurea magna, but I did find one by Green Foods called Magma Plus that contains echinacea purpurea, which is one of the species of echinacea.

If you are interested in echinacea purpurea magna plus, or any of the Green Foods green barley products, there are a number of things you should know about how their methods of processing the green barley actually introduces a lot of additives to make up for the fact that in their processing they inactivate the very enzymes that make green barley such a wonderful 'superfood'. Not to mention the chemicals they use to extract the juice and in other stages of production. Its all there in the patented process they use. For more information on green barley and additives, see this article I wrote.

Here is an excerpt from that article: Is your green barley really as pure as the manufacturers claim?

• does it contain any additives, sugars (maltodextrin), chemical substances and preservatives
• is it grown with toxic chemicals?
• when is it harvested? for it to be harvested at its nutritional peak it should be harvested before the jointing stage (before the seed head forms in the stem of the plant)
• how is it dried - at body temperature and immediately to preserve all the nutrients (including enzymes and chlorophyll)
• how is it processed? heat or friction will cause loss of nutrients.
• does it contain both soluble and insoluble fibre? the soluble fibres are where most of the mineral content is.
• is the fibre the product contains the fibre that is part of 100% green barley, or is it fibre added from cooked brown rice or other fibrous carbohydrates? The naturally occurring fibre of green barley is rich in other nutrients that are not present in cooked brown rice.

With regards some green barley juice products marketed as 100% juice - they actually have additives and are of questionable quality. They contain cooked brown rice to make up the gross fibre content (minus the nutrients) and maltodextrin (simple sugars). If you have blood sugar problems you should really be careful of these.

The patent also states that this process will increase the flavor and taste of the powders of the green juice obtained .... They state this is an improvement on the use of chemical alkaline agents such as sodium carbonate and calcium hydroxide used "hithero".

The last statement may well be true, but it does not imply that the product created is either natural or nutritious, or "pure". If you have chemical sensitivities, or blood sugar problems, or are consuming similarly created so called health products, you may want to carefully evaluate what you're consuming.

That's not to say all green barley products are created that way. Look closely at the label. The addition of any sugars (dextrose, maltose, fructose, lactose, or any combination thereof) or any added processed fibre products (like cooked brown rice) should be a warning sign in and of itself. There is no need to add any of those elements if the nutritional integrity (the vitamins, minerals, chlorophyll, enzymes and other phytochemicals) of the green barley is maintained through less destructive processing methods.

So, if you are buying echinacea purpurea magma, (nee echinacea purpurea magma) beware - you may be getting both more and less than you intended!

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