At WholeSaleRoots, we are dedicated to providing the finest MHRB, also known as Mimosa Hostilis Root Bark, as well as MHIRB – Mimosa Hostilis Inner Root Bark sourced from Brazil. Our Premium Bark, Mimosa Tenuiflora, also referred to as Jurema Preta, is our standout offering from Brazil.

We supply Mimosa Hostilis Inner Root Bark for various applications, including tanning, dyeing, and leatherwork, ensuring high-quality materials for your projects.

Our Commitment to Natural Healing: we firmly believe in the remarkable power of nature to heal and nurture. Our extensive range of wildcrafted herbal medicinal products is sourced from the finest natural ingredients. 

Each product is meticulously designed to harness the therapeutic properties of herbs in their purest form. Our commitment to sustainability and ethical harvesting practices not only provides effective remedies but also safeguards the environment. 

With a deep passion for holistic health, we strive to educate our customers about the benefits of herbal medicine, empowering them to take charge of their wellness journey. Join us in embracing nature’s bounty for a healthier and more vibrant life.

WholeSaleRoots® is a leading exporter and wholesaler of Medicinal Organic Natural Products sourced from the lush landscapes of Guyana, South America. We proudly ship internationally from both Guyana and New York City.

We guarantee Fresh, Potent, and Clean Products that are meticulously packaged and sealed. Our unwavering commitment is to deliver only the finest Organic Natural Products. The preservation of the tropical rainforest is of utmost importance to us, and we are actively collaborating with local authorities in South America to ensure responsible practices in the collection and processing of our botanicals. These botanicals are integral to both Amazon Traditional and alternative Medicine, and we utilize wild-harvested, sustainable methods. Importantly, none of our processes involve the use of pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers. 

All processing—into cut and sifted, chopped, or powdered products and tinctures—occurs at our own facility, adhering to strict standards without harmful chemicals. We strive to keep our prices as competitive as possible while never compromising on quality.

Quality and customer care are indeed our top priorities! We are proud to be the best website to buy West Indian barks and herbs online. We sincerely thank you for your patronage and encourage you to reach out via e-mail with any questions. Don’t forget to check our RETURN POLICY!

Locations

USA: We proudly maintain inventory in Colorado and New York, from which we efficiently ship products to clients across the Continental US and Canada.

Spain: Our products are available in Malaga, Spain, allowing us to serve clients throughout Europe and internationally.

Guyana (South America): We offer a comprehensive range of herbal products from Guyana, shipping to clients worldwide.

2.4 Herb and spice products

Introduction

First considerable contamination occurs during harvesting, washing and sun drying which takes place ‘on farm’, often under primitive conditions. Secondly, subsequent processing of herbs and spices is restricted to low temperature drying, grading, cleaning and grinding. They are not heat treated because this would result in loss of flavour and micro-organisms may thus survive processing.
The quality assurance and control procedures that need to be considered when processing herbs and spices fall into three main areas:

Cultivation practices, harvesting and primary processing by growers.
Processing methods in the production unit.
Packaging and storage after processing.

Quality assurance in raw material supply

Processors thus face a complex range of problems even before the product enters the processing unit and at first sight these appear to be beyond their control. However, as has been stated in other chapters of this book, ‘a good product cannot be made from second rate raw materials’. For this reason the greatest gains in finished product quality may be made by carrying out a HACCP analysis that focuses on these pre-purchase areas.

The first step is to understand the supply chain from grower to purchaser and then identify all potential hazards and their severity.

The next step is to consider what can be done to eliminate or minimise these risks. In this context, the most important aspect is the relationship between the growers and the buyer. Each must have confidence in the other. The processor should consider ways in which the grower may be assisted and this will also give greater confidence over the raw material quality. Ways of helping are many and varied but the following examples may guide the reader to develop the correct tactics and systems.

Many smallholders are forced to sell through agents as they are also a source of credit during periods of hardship or when material inputs are required. The entrepreneur may assist in a similar way by offering contracts with phased payments against an agreed quality standard. This may be particularly useful for buying inputs such as herbicides and pesticides. The entrepreneur may purchase these in larger quantities at lower prices and distribute them to growers in the correct amount, depending on the area of the crop to be treated. In this way the buyer has considerable control over both the type and level of chemicals used. In other cases the distribution of selected seed may provide the farmer with higher yields and give the buyer more uniform raw materials.

Investigation and training are also good ways to improve quality. A buyer is often well placed to organise and fund such activities, as the following account from Guatemala in Central America shows: here smallholder members of a co-operative were attempting to supply herbs, which after drying were to be sold to a major multi-national food company which applies very high quality standards. Despite rigorous washing and sanitising, it proved impossible to meet the company’s microbiological standards.

A local institution carried out some tests which showed heavy contamination not only on the outer surface of the plants but also internally. It was clear that simple washing would never solve the problem, but the final solution proved to be very simple. First the use of raw manure as a fertilizer was stopped as this was the major source of contamination. Secondly harvesting methods were changed and the cut herbs were placed in clean baskets off the soil instead of being laid on the ground. It had been shown that when a plant is cut, its stem attempts to seal itself by sucking up moisture, which in this case contained microorganisms from the soil. The farmers were trained in the proper management of manure and hygienic harvesting. The problem disappeared and a contract was won.

Farmers may also be trained to construct and use solar dryers that can provide substantially more hygienic drying conditions. A typical low cost dryer constructed from readily available materials is shown in Fig. 33 (see Figure 33: Brace type solar dryer costing about US$ 20 and capable of drying 10 kg of produce per batch). Such training should however stress that the role of the dryer is not to dry more quickly, but to give a better quality product.

Dried spices that are stored on the farm often become rapidly infested with beetles and moths. Growers usually put dried products in dirty gunny sacks which are laid on the floor in a corner of the house. Training in correct storage methods may dramatically reduce infestation levels and buyers may also directly assist the growers by providing heavy-gauge plastic bags or large tins with lids for on-farm storage.

The technique of “sunning” is used to prevent infestation of grains by heating them in the sun and this is also applicable to spices (see publications in Appendix 1).

In many cases growers wash herbs and spices using heavily contaminated water. A little household bleach to the water will reduce levels of contamination (see Chapter 1.3 and Chapter 3: chlorine measurement).

To summarise, it is possible for an entrepreneur to improve the quality of incoming herbs and spices by finding ways to have more control over their production, including for example:

Carrying out regular visits to growers to make sure bad practices are not occurring.
Arranging collection of harvested material. The shorter the time between harvest and processing the better the product quality.
Where possible, discouraging on-farm washing and drying. If the produce can be moved quickly from the farm to the processing unit it is better to carry out these steps in a controlled way 'in-house'.
When buying from larger producers or agents, samples should be taken and tested prior to purchase. Also inspection of suppliers' stores may indicate if they are clean and have any signs of insect or rodent infestation.

Quality assurance and control in the processing plant

It has been repeatedly stressed in this book that high quality finished products can never be made from poor quality raw materials. Although all stages in a process are important, errors in early stages build up, becoming larger problems later, which cannot usually be corrected. Careful attention to the initial stages of a process is therefore very beneficial in maintaining quality.

The first step in the process is to check each batch of incoming raw material and record the results against the name of the supplier in an Incoming Materials Test Book (Fig. 25). Most dry spices and herbs are delivered in gunny sacks and a ‘thief sampler’ (Figure 34: A thief sampler being used to take representative samples) is useful to remove samples from the centre of the sack for testing.

The most common checks that a small or medium scale producer can carry out on fresh material include the following:

Appearance and presence of contaminants

A sample of the incoming raw material should be spread on a sheet of clean paper and carefully examined for signs of infestation, moulds, foreign matter, rodent hairs, broken seeds etc. In some cases, placing a small sample in water may reveal spices which have been internally attacked by insects as they will tend to float. In other materials the size of pieces may be important and a simple test procedure can be developed to check the range of sizes, by either sieving or weighing a known number of seeds (Chapter 3: sieving tests). A ‘filth test’ (Chapter 3) can be used to identify insect parts.

Moisture content

The moisture content of dried herbs and spices is very important and if it is too high moulds and yeasts will be able to grow. The grower is always anxious to sell the maximum amount of water! The moisture content may be checked using scales and an oven.

Control of processing

The processing of herbs and spices usually involves most of the following stages:

Washing
Grading and cleaning
Drying
Grinding
Packaging

The factory may thus require two areas: a wet area and a dry area
The general recommendations on hygienic management of food processing buildings and equipment described in Chapter 1.2 apply to this process.

Washing

Washing most commonly takes place when fresh herbs are delivered to the processing unit.

In the case of herbs it is most important to wash them as soon as they arrive in order to remove ‘field heat’ and thus slow down the growth of micro-organisms. Large amounts of clean chlorinated water are required, using chlorine levels that are higher than those found in tap water.

If available, special disinfecting/cleaning agents are superior to chlorinated water. These usually contain chemicals known as quaternary ammonium compounds that have a stronger, longer lasting action than chlorine. They are usually supplied pre-mixed with wetting detergents that produce better washing.

Washing may be achieved at a small scale in large shallow tanks that allow operators to move the produce freely through the water. If concrete tanks are used they should ideally be tiled. Soil and other foreign matter is washed off the raw materials and frequent changes of water are therefore needed. A better method is to continuously circulate water through a filter. Ideally several tanks should be used, the first for removal of heavy soiling and subsequent cleaner tanks for final washing.

At a larger scale continuous washers are more appropriate. Here a moving conveyor picks up the produce and carries it under powerful sprays of water. Recirculation through a filter is normal to reduce water consumption.

Although spices are rarely washed in most processing units, rapid washing and redrying offers the greatest potential to improve quality. Most contamination by micro-organisms and soils on spices such as black pepper, cardamoms and pimento is surface contamination. Washing or spraying for a minute or so with chlorinated water removes most soils and reduces microbial levels. Quick washing only wets the surface and a short re-drying period is all that is required to reduce the moisture to the required level.

Drying

Various types of dryers are used for processing herbs and spices, ranging from simple sundrying to gas or kerosene-fired dryers.

Contamination by dust and dirt.
There is obviously a high risk of contamination occurring if the raw materials are laid out in the sun. Solar and powered dryers protect against contamination and are thus strongly recommended. It should be noted that fan driven dryers may suck in fine dust particles in dusty areas. As mentioned in Chapter 1.2, short cut grass around the processing area reduces the risk of airborne dust causing contamination of the product. In very dusty areas, powered dryers may need a muslin filter over the air inlet.

Drying time and temperature.
During the early stages of drying, conditions in the dryer (high humidity and moderate temperature) are ideal for the growth of micro-organisms. The quicker the drying time the better the final microbial quality of the product. Drying rates may be increased in two ways: by increasing the air flow and by increasing the air temperature. However temperatures should not be too high as they cause damage to the product. This is particularly true of herbs and spices as there is the risk of losing delicate flavours or colours. The processor therefore needs to experiment and find the best temperature for each product.

Storage

After drying, the material should be packed quickly into clean heavy-gauge plastic sacks to avoid any moisture pick-up. Workers should not directly handle the food, but use scoops or clean gloves. Sacks should be labelled and dated and samples should be taken for moisture testing. It is a good idea to retain samples in airtight bottles for future reference.

Dried products must also be stored under proper conditions, off the floor on wooden pallets and away from walls so that the store-room may be kept clean. Herbs may lose their bright colour if exposed to sunlight and over-wrapping with black plastic sheets is recommended. The store should be regularly inspected and cleaned and stock should be used in rotation.

Grinding

Grinding may give rise to a considerable amount of fine dust which attracts insects. Ideally the mill should be housed in a separate room that can be thoroughly cleaned at the end of the day. A small vacuum cleaner is recommended for cleaning up fine dust as brushing tends to push dust into the air for it to settle elsewhere. F

Packaging and storage of finished products

The type of packaging needed for herbs and spices depends on the product, the intended market and the types of climate that the food will be exposed to. A herb or spice that is marketed in a cool dry area may only need simple packaging such as paper. The same product sold in a hot, humid area needs considerable protection against moisture pick-up. Producers may therefore need to decide on different packs for different markets. Selection of packaging requires much thought and attention as it represents the final defence for the product in the chain to the customer. Some useful publications on packaging are listed in Appendix 1.

Most herbs and spices are packed in plastic film as either large bulk bags or small retail packs.

2.4 Herb and spice products

Introduction

First considerable contamination occurs during harvesting, washing and sun drying which takes place ‘on farm’, often under primitive conditions. Secondly, subsequent processing of herbs and spices is restricted to low temperature drying, grading, cleaning and grinding. They are not heat treated because this would result in loss of flavour and micro-organisms may thus survive processing.
The quality assurance and control procedures that need to be considered when processing herbs and spices fall into three main areas:

Cultivation practices, harvesting and primary processing by growers.
Processing methods in the production unit.
Packaging and storage after processing.

Quality assurance in raw material supply

Processors thus face a complex range of problems even before the product enters the processing unit and at first sight these appear to be beyond their control. However, as has been stated in other chapters of this book, ‘a good product cannot be made from second rate raw materials’. For this reason the greatest gains in finished product quality may be made by carrying out a HACCP analysis that focuses on these pre-purchase areas.

The first step is to understand the supply chain from grower to purchaser and then identify all potential hazards and their severity.

The next step is to consider what can be done to eliminate or minimise these risks. In this context, the most important aspect is the relationship between the growers and the buyer. Each must have confidence in the other. The processor should consider ways in which the grower may be assisted and this will also give greater confidence over the raw material quality. Ways of helping are many and varied but the following examples may guide the reader to develop the correct tactics and systems.

Many smallholders are forced to sell through agents as they are also a source of credit during periods of hardship or when material inputs are required. The entrepreneur may assist in a similar way by offering contracts with phased payments against an agreed quality standard. This may be particularly useful for buying inputs such as herbicides and pesticides. The entrepreneur may purchase these in larger quantities at lower prices and distribute them to growers in the correct amount, depending on the area of the crop to be treated. In this way the buyer has considerable control over both the type and level of chemicals used. In other cases the distribution of selected seed may provide the farmer with higher yields and give the buyer more uniform raw materials.

Investigation and training are also good ways to improve quality. A buyer is often well placed to organise and fund such activities, as the following account from Guatemala in Central America shows: here smallholder members of a co-operative were attempting to supply herbs, which after drying were to be sold to a major multi-national food company which applies very high quality standards. Despite rigorous washing and sanitising, it proved impossible to meet the company’s microbiological standards.

A local institution carried out some tests which showed heavy contamination not only on the outer surface of the plants but also internally. It was clear that simple washing would never solve the problem, but the final solution proved to be very simple. First the use of raw manure as a fertilizer was stopped as this was the major source of contamination. Secondly harvesting methods were changed and the cut herbs were placed in clean baskets off the soil instead of being laid on the ground. It had been shown that when a plant is cut, its stem attempts to seal itself by sucking up moisture, which in this case contained microorganisms from the soil. The farmers were trained in the proper management of manure and hygienic harvesting. The problem disappeared and a contract was won.

Farmers may also be trained to construct and use solar dryers that can provide substantially more hygienic drying conditions. A typical low cost dryer constructed from readily available materials is shown in Fig. 33 (see Figure 33: Brace type solar dryer costing about US$ 20 and capable of drying 10 kg of produce per batch). Such training should however stress that the role of the dryer is not to dry more quickly, but to give a better quality product.

Dried spices that are stored on the farm often become rapidly infested with beetles and moths. Growers usually put dried products in dirty gunny sacks which are laid on the floor in a corner of the house. Training in correct storage methods may dramatically reduce infestation levels and buyers may also directly assist the growers by providing heavy-gauge plastic bags or large tins with lids for on-farm storage.

The technique of “sunning” is used to prevent infestation of grains by heating them in the sun and this is also applicable to spices (see publications in Appendix 1).

In many cases growers wash herbs and spices using heavily contaminated water. A little household bleach to the water will reduce levels of contamination (see Chapter 1.3 and Chapter 3: chlorine measurement).

To summarise, it is possible for an entrepreneur to improve the quality of incoming herbs and spices by finding ways to have more control over their production, including for example:

Carrying out regular visits to growers to make sure bad practices are not occurring.
Arranging collection of harvested material. The shorter the time between harvest and processing the better the product quality.
Where possible, discouraging on-farm washing and drying. If the produce can be moved quickly from the farm to the processing unit it is better to carry out these steps in a controlled way 'in-house'.
When buying from larger producers or agents, samples should be taken and tested prior to purchase. Also inspection of suppliers' stores may indicate if they are clean and have any signs of insect or rodent infestation.

Quality assurance and control in the processing plant

It has been repeatedly stressed in this book that high quality finished products can never be made from poor quality raw materials. Although all stages in a process are important, errors in early stages build up, becoming larger problems later, which cannot usually be corrected. Careful attention to the initial stages of a process is therefore very beneficial in maintaining quality.

The first step in the process is to check each batch of incoming raw material and record the results against the name of the supplier in an Incoming Materials Test Book (Fig. 25). Most dry spices and herbs are delivered in gunny sacks and a ‘thief sampler’ (Figure 34: A thief sampler being used to take representative samples) is useful to remove samples from the centre of the sack for testing.

The most common checks that a small or medium scale producer can carry out on fresh material include the following:

Appearance and presence of contaminants

A sample of the incoming raw material should be spread on a sheet of clean paper and carefully examined for signs of infestation, moulds, foreign matter, rodent hairs, broken seeds etc. In some cases, placing a small sample in water may reveal spices which have been internally attacked by insects as they will tend to float. In other materials the size of pieces may be important and a simple test procedure can be developed to check the range of sizes, by either sieving or weighing a known number of seeds (Chapter 3: sieving tests). A ‘filth test’ (Chapter 3) can be used to identify insect parts.

Moisture content

The moisture content of dried herbs and spices is very important and if it is too high moulds and yeasts will be able to grow. The grower is always anxious to sell the maximum amount of water! The moisture content may be checked using scales and an oven.

Control of processing

The processing of herbs and spices usually involves most of the following stages:

Washing
Grading and cleaning
Drying
Grinding
Packaging

The factory may thus require two areas: a wet area and a dry area
The general recommendations on hygienic management of food processing buildings and equipment described in Chapter 1.2 apply to this process.

Washing

Washing most commonly takes place when fresh herbs are delivered to the processing unit.

In the case of herbs it is most important to wash them as soon as they arrive in order to remove ‘field heat’ and thus slow down the growth of micro-organisms. Large amounts of clean chlorinated water are required, using chlorine levels that are higher than those found in tap water.

If available, special disinfecting/cleaning agents are superior to chlorinated water. These usually contain chemicals known as quaternary ammonium compounds that have a stronger, longer lasting action than chlorine. They are usually supplied pre-mixed with wetting detergents that produce better washing.

Washing may be achieved at a small scale in large shallow tanks that allow operators to move the produce freely through the water. If concrete tanks are used they should ideally be tiled. Soil and other foreign matter is washed off the raw materials and frequent changes of water are therefore needed. A better method is to continuously circulate water through a filter. Ideally several tanks should be used, the first for removal of heavy soiling and subsequent cleaner tanks for final washing.

At a larger scale continuous washers are more appropriate. Here a moving conveyor picks up the produce and carries it under powerful sprays of water. Recirculation through a filter is normal to reduce water consumption.

Although spices are rarely washed in most processing units, rapid washing and redrying offers the greatest potential to improve quality. Most contamination by micro-organisms and soils on spices such as black pepper, cardamoms and pimento is surface contamination. Washing or spraying for a minute or so with chlorinated water removes most soils and reduces microbial levels. Quick washing only wets the surface and a short re-drying period is all that is required to reduce the moisture to the required level.

Drying

Various types of dryers are used for processing herbs and spices, ranging from simple sundrying to gas or kerosene-fired dryers.

Contamination by dust and dirt.
There is obviously a high risk of contamination occurring if the raw materials are laid out in the sun. Solar and powered dryers protect against contamination and are thus strongly recommended. It should be noted that fan driven dryers may suck in fine dust particles in dusty areas. As mentioned in Chapter 1.2, short cut grass around the processing area reduces the risk of airborne dust causing contamination of the product. In very dusty areas, powered dryers may need a muslin filter over the air inlet.

Drying time and temperature.
During the early stages of drying, conditions in the dryer (high humidity and moderate temperature) are ideal for the growth of micro-organisms. The quicker the drying time the better the final microbial quality of the product. Drying rates may be increased in two ways: by increasing the air flow and by increasing the air temperature. However temperatures should not be too high as they cause damage to the product. This is particularly true of herbs and spices as there is the risk of losing delicate flavours or colours. The processor therefore needs to experiment and find the best temperature for each product.

Storage

After drying, the material should be packed quickly into clean heavy-gauge plastic sacks to avoid any moisture pick-up. Workers should not directly handle the food, but use scoops or clean gloves. Sacks should be labelled and dated and samples should be taken for moisture testing. It is a good idea to retain samples in airtight bottles for future reference.

Dried products must also be stored under proper conditions, off the floor on wooden pallets and away from walls so that the store-room may be kept clean. Herbs may lose their bright colour if exposed to sunlight and over-wrapping with black plastic sheets is recommended. The store should be regularly inspected and cleaned and stock should be used in rotation.

Grinding

Grinding may give rise to a considerable amount of fine dust which attracts insects. Ideally the mill should be housed in a separate room that can be thoroughly cleaned at the end of the day. A small vacuum cleaner is recommended for cleaning up fine dust as brushing tends to push dust into the air for it to settle elsewhere. F

Packaging and storage of finished products

The type of packaging needed for herbs and spices depends on the product, the intended market and the types of climate that the food will be exposed to. A herb or spice that is marketed in a cool dry area may only need simple packaging such as paper. The same product sold in a hot, humid area needs considerable protection against moisture pick-up. Producers may therefore need to decide on different packs for different markets. Selection of packaging requires much thought and attention as it represents the final defence for the product in the chain to the customer. Some useful publications on packaging are listed in Appendix 1.

Most herbs and spices are packed in plastic film as either large bulk bags or small retail packs.