Functional Beverages

6 Key Areas of Functionality for Truly Functional Beverages

When your product line features functional beverages, come to Draco Natural Products! We produce over 700 bioactive botanical extracts that can add true functionality to your beverage products. Pure, safe, concentrated Full Spectrum extracts from Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs and Mushrooms are loaded with tested levels of active constituents for optimum beverage functionality! Here are but a few examples in 6 key areas of functionality.

Energy and Vibrant Health

Vibrant health is more than just being free of disease or unwanted health problems: it is feeling great with high energy levels, clear thinking, and a strong physical body to accomplish all the goals in life. A good diet, optimum sleep, stress reduction, and healthy habits are all essential components to reaching that goal. Well-designed health tonic beverages can help reduce stress, improve energy levels, increase resistance, and improve organ health.
In TCM, it is thought that the opposite, but complementary yin and yang energies in the body become out of balance. Tonic herbs help restore balance to achieve and maintain excellent health. Yin tonics are needed to restore cell growth and protein synthesis while yang tonics are needed to promote energy, nervous system activity, and libido.
Astragalus promotes vital energy, and stimulates cellular metabolism and mitochondria activity. It boosts immune function, cardiovascular health, lung function, and kidney health. Astragalus also reduces fatigue, and increases resistance to colds and flu.
Rehmannia is a yin tonic used to treat blood deficiency, fatigue, stress, heart palpitations, and weakness. It is a powerful restorative tonic that benefits the adrenal system, hormones, and bone marrow to promote vibrant health, energy, and wellbeing.

Anti-Inflammation

Inflammation is a normal response of a proper functioning immune system and is necessary for the body to remove tissue damage before healing and restoration can occur. However, excess or chronic inflammation can delay healing and even lead to major degenerative diseases. The most common types of inflammation are those involving the joints, skin, muscles, digestive system, and airways. It is involved in such conditions as fibromyalgia, asthma, dermatitis, arthritis, colitis/IBS, and numerous others. Imbalances in the body exacerbate inflammation and include excess levels of prostaglandins, leukotrienes, and chemical messengers from the immune system
known as cytokines.
Botanicals have been shown to reduce these inflammatory pathways through similar mechanisms to those of anti-inflammatory drugs.
Chinese Skullcap with the anti-inflammatory active constituent baicalin, supports healthy joints by blocking destructive immune system attacks on joint tissue, and supports healthy lung function.
White Peony Root is used in TCM for its sedative, antispasmodic, anodyne, and astringent properties. It has anti-inflammatory and joint comfort effects that can inhibit thrombosis and platelet aggregation, and can improve blood flow to reduce swelling associated with inflammation and joint discomfort.

Detoxification

Toxins from air, water, and food pollution can lead to poor health and serious illness. Common symptoms of a high toxicity level are fatigue, fuzzy concentration, skin blemishes, and pain. Toxins can also cause more serious effects such as increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, bronchitis and asthma, and impaired cognition.
Natural botanicals for your beverage products can protect the lungs, skin, and whole body from pollutants. Some can help increase the excretion of heavy metals and help the liver to metabolize toxins.
Certain herbs have antioxidant properties that neutralize free radicals before they can do harm.
Burdock root is a blood purifier which helps with skin conditions/blemishes, and joint health; acts as a cholagogue (promoting bile flow); a lymphatic (promoting lymph drainage); and a mild diaphoretic to induce sweating – all of which are routes of detoxification.
Cilantro is an herb also known as Chinese parsley, which can protect and detoxify from exposure to mercury, often found in fish and coal air pollution from power plants.
Brussel Sprouts are cruciferous vegetables that increase phase 2 liver enzymes for safely detoxifying carcinogens from the body.

Immunity

A healthy immune system protects the whole body against the viruses, mold, and bacteria that surround us. The immune system can be weakened by a host of factors including poor diet, aging, lack of sound sleep, emotional/stressful events, and environmental toxins. When the immune system is weakened, acute infections can lead to life threatening situations, while chronic infections can result in disability or auto-immune diseases like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis.
The immune system also destroys mutated cells that form on a frequent basis and can become cancerous.
Consider adding one or more of the many immune tonic herbs to your functional beverages!
Turkey Tail mushroom is used in traditional herbal medicine to reduce phlegm, support lung function, strengthen physique, increase energy and help with chronic conditions. It is also used for anti-microbial effects and inflammation of the upper respiratory, urinary, and digestive tracts.
Shiitake mushroom has immune stimulating effects helpful for microbial control, environmental allergies, fungal conditions, and flu and colds. Shiitake increases T cells and natural killer cells, and its Lentinan component stimulates production of antiviral immunoglobulins.

Anti-aging and Beauty

Anti-aging remedies are quickly increasing in popularity as researchers are discovering natural products can improve aged related cognitive function, skin youthfulness, muscle strength, bone health, and energy. Phytocompounds from botanicals can play a key role in antiaging beverage solutions.
Antioxidants are thought to reduce the aging process by protecting DNA and cell membranes from damage. Stem cells can be stimulated to regenerate new tissues in the body. Promising research in nutrigenomic show phytocompounds can increase the length of DNA end caps using telomerase activators, allowing cells to divide for longer periods of time.
Goji berry is revered as an antiaging food and herb in TCM. It has the ability to replenish vital essence, and the liver and kidney yin. Goji berry was shown to accelerate the DNA synthesis rate of aging cells and prolong the life span. Goji berry increases the activity of powerful antioxidants, and increases collagen in skin.
Astragalus has antiaging and immune restoration effects at the genetic level by increasing telomerase activation to maintain or increase the telomere length of cells. Cells grown in an Astragalus extract had an extension of cell divisions and overall life span to roughly double the normal rate.

Sleep and Relaxation

New evidence is emerging that insomnia worsens many health conditions including diabetes, obesity, immunity, and cardiovascular health. Lack of sleep also adversely affects appearance which can include dark circles under the eyes, puffiness of the face, and sallow skin. Poor sleep increases the stress hormone cortisol which often leads to thinning of the skin, muscle and bone loss, and increased fat storage. Cortisol increases aging by elevating blood sugar, leading to increased tissue glycation, followed by inflammation and tissue damage.
Insomnia is caused by several factors including stress, poor dietary habits, lack of physical activity and psychological influences. Sleep and relaxation herbs with anti-stress and sedative effects can make an effective nightcap, which can help to decrease cortisol and induce drowsiness, while calming the mind.
Albizzia julibrissin is used in TCM for calming the spirit and treating symptoms related to stress, such as agitation, mood support, insomnia, irritability and poor memory. It is also useful for restlessness, discomfort, calming the nerves, and attention deficit.
Reishi mushroom has tranquilizing effects and is used for the treatment of restlessness, insomnia, and palpitation. In a study of how Reishi influences sleep, it was found to significantly increase total sleep time and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep time.