The case for naming the growers behind the capsule

Two kitchen and clinic traditions, Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, kept turmeric and ginseng in regular use for centuries before capsules existed. Contracted farms and certified supply chains now carry much of that material forward. A label should name the tradition it borrows from and the growers who carry it.

Residue found in pots near New Delhi held turmeric with ginger and garlic, dated to 2500 BCE, and India has remained the largest producer of turmeric since ancient times, while the plant spread through the tropics.

Curcuma longa is a perennial plant of the ginger family that produces both a flower and an underground rhizome used as spice and dye. Ayurvedic literature holds more than 100 terms for that rhizome, including Jayanti and matrimanika. Turmeric became an important part of Ayurvedic medicine around 500 BCE, a system still practised today. Susruta’s Ayurvedic compendium dating to 250 BC recommends an ointment containing turmeric to relieve the effects of poisoned food. In Ayurvedic medicine turmeric is described as a balancing agent among three doshas, vata, pitta and kapha. Ayurvedic healers use turmeric internally as fresh juice, boiled tea, tinctures or powder and topically as creams, lotions, pastes and ointments.

Chinese records kept the same plant in view. Turmeric was included in the Tang Materia Medica compiled in China in 659 AD, described as the world’s first pharmacopoeia. Chinese medicine uses turmeric for moving Qi and blood in treatment of epigastric and abdominal pain, menstrual irregularities, swellings and trauma. The two systems kept different vocabularies for similar material, and both kept preparation close to the household and the practitioner. Processing of the rhizome still follows two main methods, cleaning then boiling, drying and grinding into powder, or extracting oil before dehydration.

Ginseng followed a parallel path from mountain collection to farmed supply. Ginseng was discovered over 5000 years ago in the mountains of Manchuria, China, according to a history review. In traditional Chinese medicine ginseng has been used for more than 2000 years and was considered a cure for all ailments. The genus name Panax derives from Greek meaning total healing, given by Charles Linnaeus. Commercially the plant ginseng is present in thirty five countries, with Korean ginseng native to the Korean Peninsula and northern China and American ginseng native to the United States and Canada. White ginseng is 4-year-old raw ginseng, thinly peeled and sun dried to less than 15 percent moisture, while red ginseng is steamed then dried for long term storage. The functions of red ginseng as a functional food for health were certified with the application of the Korean law on functional foods for health in 2004. About 50 kinds of ginsenosides have been identified in ginseng, in two major groups protopanaxadiol and protopanaxatriol.

From regional markets to contracted fields

For much of this history, material moved through regional markets, seasonal collection and practitioner stores. The World Health Organization has estimated that 80 percent of the population in developing countries depends primarily upon herbal medicine for basic health care. That scale explains why standardization arrived with pressure. Buyers wanted consistent lots, known moisture, defined extract ratios and testable batches. Sellers wanted volume across seasons. Contracted farms in India, China and Eastern Europe answered with planted area, harvest dates and paperwork, while wild collection continued for some roots and berries.

Certification grew up to check that exchange. Fairtrade Standards cover farmer cooperatives, large farms or factories with hired workforce and companies who buy and sell Fairtrade products, with compliance checked by audits including field inspections and confidential staff interviews. Fair for Life certification addresses fair pricing, safe working conditions and transparent practices, while FairWild addresses sustainable harvest and trade of wild-collected plants with third party audited traceability. In 2025 Gaia Herbs recertified its facilities under both Fair for Life and FairWild standards.

The numbers tell a partial story. In 2024 and 2025, 51 ingredients, roughly 20 percent of the Gaia Herbs total, were certified through Regenerative Organic Certified, Fair for Life or FairWild standards, up from 35 in 2023. Gaia Herbs lists certified sourcing examples including Holy Basil Leaf from India, Schisandra Berry from China, Licorice Root from Spain and Vitex Berry from Albania.

A label should carry the names that the supply chain already knows.

Those examples show what traceability can look like when a grower, a place and a harvest are recorded. They also show the limit. Fair certification frameworks exist, but how much of the global turmeric or ginseng trade is covered or what growers are paid remains unclear. What share of turmeric, ginseng and reishi in capsules comes from contracted farms versus regional markets or wild collection remains unreported here. How harvest season, grower identity and price are recorded and shared on finished packs is also unclear. Curcumin is often credited as the reason turmeric has medicinal value, but this may simply reflect that curcumin is considered the main active component, and a standardised marker is not the whole plant.

What fair sourcing shows on paper

A certificate of analysis states lot identity, fill weight and test results for items such as heavy metals. A third-party lab gives those results standing outside the brand. Certification adds the field side of the paper trail. Fair for Life looks at pricing and working conditions. FairWild looks at sustainable harvest and trade of wild-collected plants. Regenerative Organic Certified adds soil and farm practice to the same bundle. Together they let a buyer follow a capsule backwards from encapsulation to extraction to drying to harvest.

“Authentic fair trade is about honoring the people, planet, and plants holistically,” said Chase Millhollen, Director, Global Sourcing / Supply Chain. The sentence points to a test any brand can meet. Name the tradition. Name the grower or harvest group. Give the harvest season. Show the certificate and the lab. A systematic review found only three randomised trials of individualised herbal medicine and no convincing evidence to support individualised herbal medicine in any indication. A 2023 review in Frontiers in Pharmacology found positive outcomes were lower for urinary tract and gastrointestinal uses than for psychosomatic, gynaecological and upper respiratory uses, and called for higher quality studies. Those findings do not settle sourcing, but they counsel care with claims. Whether standardised extracts carry the same effects as household or practitioner preparations is not shown in this brief. How fair premiums change income and working conditions for herb growers over time is also not shown.

A label should carry the names that the supply chain already knows. Turmeric belongs with Ayurveda and with Chinese medicine where those uses are documented. Ginseng belongs with Chinese medicine and with the farms in Korea, northern China, the United States and Canada that now grow it. Reishi and other hive and forest materials belong with the harvesters who know season and place. Credit means origin on the pack, lot records behind it, and paperwork a careful buyer can read. That is what fair sourcing looks like now, and what the next label should prove.