To:	Medical Practitioners, Therapists, and all other recommenders of Panitrol products
Re:	Aspirin vs. Salicin, in Panitrol Products

Many people who are about to buy or consume Panitrol see Willow Bark and Meadowsweet extracts listed in the ingredients. They know they've heard somewhere that these are often called "herbal aspirin" and they make the leap to think that our products contain something that will cause them discomfort or worse, harm them, especially if they're allergic to aspirin. Nothing could be further from the truth.

About 1% of the normal population and about 20% of asthmatics are allergic to aspirin, otherwise known as acetyl salicylic acid. The existence and severity of their allergic reactions is very personal and completely unpredictable from one person to another. Mild aspirin allergic reactions include hives and/or swelling, while severe reactions may be as severe as anaphylaxis, or life-threatening respiratory difficulty. The mechanism of this aspirin allergy is still not completely known, but the research points to it being genetic in origin.

Willow bark and Meadowsweet contain a group of compounds known as salicins. This group of compounds comprise the herbal model that aspirin was first synthesized to mimic. Salicins and aspirin have nearly the same pharmacological effects once in the blood, but salicins are known to be much gentler and have a longer time of effectiveness. Salicins can only be obtained from herbal sources. Tracking the metabolism of salicins has shown that they are absorbed into the blood much more slowly than aspirin due to the complex chemical reactions required. Both salicin and aspirin show up in blood plasma as salicylic acid, but an aspirin dose as little as 7.2% of a salicin dose will show up in the blood as fast or faster and yield a higher level of salicylic acid. This rapid rise in plasma levels may also be part of the allergic reaction puzzle.

The ingredients in Panitrol contain extremely low levels (single digit or fractional parts per million) of the extracts. Since these extracts are from wholes plant parts they have many, many compounds in them, thus reducing the levels of salicin salts within even further. Many people who are known to be allergic to aspirin have taken Panitrol for years with absolutely no adverse side effects including allergic reactions.

 There are many salicin compounds in these two extracts, but none is in a concentration high enough to have an overt effect by itself. The main function of the salicins in the formulas is to "hyperactivate" the other pain-fighting herbal compounds. A common principle in herbal medicine is that often tipping the balance just a little with an extremely small amount of one substance can dramatically affect the efficiency of action of another compound or compounds.

The sugar content of Panitrol is minimal as well. The fruit sugars all come from the grape extract, and amount to just about 150mg per capsule. This amount of sugar is far below the level needed by most any human body to grossly and rapidly affect measured blood sugar levels.

In conclusion, neither the amount of salicin per dose of Panitrol and its known pharmacology nor the amount of fruit sugars present in that same dose can have any measureable effect on whole body blood chemistry except when the subject ingesting the product has a severe allergic condition to one or more of the five herbal extracts used in their composition.

To date we have not heard of any reports of any known adverse interactions or known side effects from the any of the customers that have purchased and used hundreds of thousands of bottles of these products nor have there been any documented reports of any known adverse interactions or known side effects caused by the use of Panitrol resulting from any of the clinical trials performed on Panitrol.