Our History

Clockwise from top left:

Ed Smith and Sara Katz, 1979

Sara chopping roots to dry

Ed inspecting freshly harvested Ginseng root

Ed hand-harvesting Mullein flowers

The First Years
On March 8, 1979, Herb Pharm was officially established as a bona fide business in Williams, Oregon. Back in those days, our "lab" was the home of Ed Smith and Sara Katz, the company's founders and owners. Bottles were filled one-by-one with a beaker, and labels were typed with a typewriter on Avery blanks. Accompanied by a handful of apprentices who lived in Ed and Sara's house, days and nights were spent planting, harvesting and grinding the roots, leaves, flowers and seeds that grew in our garden and the surrounding mountains to make our liquid herbal extracts.

Serving a Need
In those days, our little company was the alternative to the rather poor quality and limited array of medicinal herb products available in the 70's. Back then, we spoke constantly and loudly of the importance of using organic, high-quality herbs as opposed to the overdried plant fiber that the few existing companies were using in their products.

Focus on Quality
We focused on collecting the best quality herbs we could, hand-picking the most medicine laden plant parts while paying close attention to the plants themselves, their peak of readiness and the best time of day for harvest. We even drove 100 miles round trip to fill our jugs with solar distilled water for our extracts!

Our Traditional Roots
Before starting Herb Pharm, Ed lived five winters in the South American jungle learning about plants from the native healers. He practiced herbal medicine at a missionary clinic in Guatemala, and studied every herb book he could get his hands on. Early on, we used formulas from traditional American herbals, the writings of the Eclectic Physicians, and the U.S.Pharmacopoeia's.

Ed Smith began formulating proprietary compounds, using knowledge from his studies and extensive travels. Always paying close attention to worldwide medicinal herb research, Herb Pharm introduced to the American herb market valuable medicinal herb products such as Ginkgo and Vitex.

Today at Herb Pharm
Ed and Sara still own Herb Pharm as a family business, and are involved in the daily operations of the company. We now have an 85-acre certified organic herb farm (called the "Pharm Farm"), employ 75 people, and sell products to health food stores, Herbalists, Naturopathic Physicians, and Medical Doctors worldwide.

Attention to Detail
We are as picky as ever about the plants we use and their meticulous extraction. We extract each herb according to its own unique physical and biochemical characteristics at a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Williams. As years go by, we constantly look for ways to improve the quality of our herbal medicines.

Committed to Principles of Traditional Herbal Medicines
There is an ever-increasing trend towards refining herbs and isolation of herbal constituents. Our broad-spectrum extracts provide an alternative to this trend. We are still committed to herbal extracts that represent the whole plant, and the basic principles of traditional herbal medicines. We are sincerely grateful and thank all of our customers who have used our products through these years. As we continue to sink our herbal roots deeper and deeper, we will constantly strive to bring our customers the finest herbal extracts available anywhere.