Gomas PMS — 90 gomas

Vitex

50 mg of extract per serving

Dried fruit of Vitex agnus-castus, a Mediterranean tree whose fruit has the size and the taste of a peppercorn, which is how it came to be called monk’s pepper. It is here for a reason no other plant in this formula has: it is the only one the European literature studies in the context of the endocrine system, which is exactly the system the vitamin B6 claim in this formula refers to. Its reference compounds are agnusides and casticin, concentrated in the dried fruit rather than in the leaf, which is why the extract is made from the fruit.

Vitamin B6, the cofactor

20 mg, 1429% NRV

Why this vitamin and not another. In the body, B6 converts to pyridoxal-5-phosphate, its active form, and in that form it is the cofactor of more than a hundred enzymatic reactions, almost all of them in amino acid metabolism. Cofactor means the enzyme is still there, but it does not work without it. That position in metabolism is where the rarest thing about this vitamin comes from: the European Union authorises ten health claims for it, more than for almost any other nutrient. A 20 mg dose covers every one of them with an enormous margin.

And what B6 allows us to state

Reg. (EU) 432/2012

Of the ten, we use four: vitamin B6 contributes to the regulation of hormonal activity, to normal psychological function, to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue and to the normal functioning of the nervous system. They are the regulation’s own wording, used exactly as written, and two of them are printed on the front of the jar. There is nothing else in this formula about which anything at all can be stated, and we would rather say so.

Lemon balm and Chinese angelica

50 mg and 20 mg per serving

The two supporting plants, and we say exactly what they are. Lemon balm is the leaf of Melissa officinalis, in the same family as mint, with the lemon scent that comes from its citral; its reference compound is rosmarinic acid. Chinese angelica is the root of dong quai, one of the oldest in the traditional Chinese pharmacopoeia. They are here in supporting doses, and that is exactly what they are: they are in the formula for the tradition of each, not for an effect we could attribute to them.

And no hormones

Statement of composition

There are no oestrogens, no progesterone and no hormone derivatives of any kind in this formula. There are no phytoestrogens either, which is the more common route in this field: no soy, no wild yam, no red clover. The decision was to build the formula around a vitamin with authorised claims rather than around a plant with oestrogenic activity. It is printed on the front of the label because it is the first thing anyone buying it wants to know.

Pectin and strawberry flavour

Gelling agent

Set with fruit pectin rather than animal gelatine, and that is two consequences rather than one: it makes them vegan, and it gives them a soft bite instead of the springy one gelatine gives. Every piece has a red fruit core in the middle, visible through the translucent gel before you taste it. Strawberry flavour, no added sugars, twenty kilocalories per serving of two gummies.