Advanced Spagyric Organic Extraction Technique. Does it Create a Superior Hemp Extract?

Article Summary:

• Whole extracts, like whole-foods and whole-supplements may be the most effective form of CBD because they are created to have maximum bio-availability.
• Maximizing the bio-availability of a CBD requires: 1. The extract be made from only 100% Organic Hemp Flowers where the highest concentration and widest variety of cannabinoids exist in a Hemp plant. 2. The extract is made using low temperature Spagyric extraction technique. 3. The extract is chemically decarboxylated (not thermally) by reintroducing the minerals salts.
• Whole extracts are defined as including the hemp flower's chlorophyll, mineral salts, all of the terpenes and all of the cannabinoids in both their acidic and stable forms.
• Only Advance Spagyric Organic Extraction (ASOE) creates a whole extract that has maximum bio-availability and is a True Full Spectrum CBD. 
• Other important factors play into the efficacy of an extract including diet, lifestyle, sleep quality, and stress levels.

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Understanding Advanced Spagyric Organic Extraction:  

1. Advanced Spagyric Organic Extraction only uses 100% Organic Hemp Flowers. 

2. Advanced Spagyric Organic Oil is superior to Isolates, CO2 Extractions, and typical Alcohol Extractions because it produces a  complete entourage effect because it includes the hemp flower's chlorophyll, mineral salts, all of the terpenes and all of the cannabinoids in both their acidic and stable forms.

3.ASOE CBD is handmade in small batches in vacuum sealed Soxhlet extractors using organic grain alcohol at low temperatures.

4. After the extraction stage is complete, the remaining biomass is burned down into white mineral ash. This white mineral ash contains valuable mineral salts that are then returned to the extract.

5. The mineral salts  chemically activate and decarboxylate the cannabinoids without using heat, preventing the deterioration of the alkaloids from the damaging effects that come along with heat.

6. This is the only CBD extraction process that is  organic from beginning to end: soil to extract. ASOE is organic all the way through cultivation, extraction, and formulation.

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Healthy Means Whole

Being healthy is like being whole. In fact,  the word "health" is derived from the old-english word for "whole." Humans have long understood that true health comes from understanding what makes us whole. Just as true health goes beyond focusing only on the heart, or the immune system, or sleep to include emotions, energy, and their relationships, our tools for healing go beyond just vitamins, or diet, or CBD.

This idea of completeness is fundamental to our healing process, but it is also fundamental to understanding what makes our supplements and extracts effective. Understanding how the quality and effectiveness of CBD are defined by more than just cannabinoids or terpenes reminds us that it is the whole of the hemp flower working as one combined with our habits that creates the medicinal effect. 

So, what creates a whole and complete CBD extract? What makes a CBD extract truly effective? 

In regards to the CBD specifically:

• It contains a True Full Spectrum of Cannabinoids.
• It contains the entourage of terpenes, and micro-cannabinoids.
• It contains the chlorophyll.
• It contains the Mineral Salts.
• It is not decarboxylated using heat.
• Finally, it is made by chemists dedicated to integrity and your health.

But, we must go beyond the CBD to consider other factors at play. For there are many elements that affect the efficacy of our  extracts and supplements, including: 

• Our daily habits and practices, 
• Our levels of sleep, stress management, and exercise,
• Our diet and our active removal of aggravating foods, 
• Our mentality and mindfulness,
• Our relationships and our consciously cultivated feeling of connection.

What Questions You Should Be Asking About Your CBD Extract:

When including a CBD extract in your diet it is important to look at the wholeness of the extract. Is the CBD True Full Spectrum? Is it a complete extract that includes all terpenes, cannabinoids, chlorophyll AND mineral salts? Does the CBD contain both acidic and stable forms of cannabinoids (ie. both CBDa and CBD)? Is it made in an organic and sustainable way? Is the CBD healthy for me and the planet?

A truly complete, truly full spectrum extract can leave you feeling held and cared for as you absorb all of the quality care that it has experienced from plant-form to extract-form. The highest quality extracts are a whole and true representation of the organic hemp flower AND the extraction process. 

Advanced Spagyric Organic Extraction recreates the flower in extract-form. Using advanced organic methods can increase the quality of the extract. When the whole process is performed with care using quality soil, strains, and ingredients by people who care about your health (rather than making money), you will feel the difference.

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Minerals Salts: The Key to Unlocking the Potency of a CBD Extract

Humans evolved over hundreds of thousands of years while eating whole foods. Because we consumed food in whole form our bodies adapted to receive many elements of nourishment  simultaneously. This entourage of components makes up the team of chemicals, micro- and macro-nutrients, fiber, vitamins, and minerals that our bodies are designed metabolize together. 

Unfortunately, modern science has focused on isolating plant medicinal qualities for so long that it has lost touch with the fundamental understanding that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Our bodies are a whole organism (not a collection of independently functioning organs) that evolved eating whole foods, and there is growing evidence that the healing properties of a plant are the housed in the whole plant and not just one of its many components.

But, despite the growing evidence that the medicinal qualities live in the whole of the hemp plant, most producers continue to use extraction methods that create partial-spectrum distillates and isolates, continue to use damaging heat for decarboxylation, and are not including mineral salts in their extracts. It's done this way because it's cheaper and quicker to produce.

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Why Include Minerals Salts in a CBD Extract?

Mineral salts play a variety of important roles in a Hemp Plant's life, including: helping the plant absorb nutrients, helping facilitate a variety of plant processes, and helping develop and maintain the plant's structure (1).

Mineral salts are also an important part of making a CBD extract bio-available. The mineral salts have a basic pH, and when added back into the extract they chemically decarboxylate the cannabinoids. This boost in decarbed cannabinoids ups the bio-availability of the CBD and helps it to be recognized by your endo-cannabinoid system. 

As an added bonus, by using the mineral salts to decarboxylate the extract instead of heat, it retains valuable potency in its alkaloids. Heat has been seen to  damage alkaloids like CBDa and CBD. (7)

The mineral salts not only decarboxylate the cannabinoids but also complete the entourage of plant components present in the organic hemp flowers. Their presence in the extract makes it easier for your body to recognize, absorb, and utilize the plant's properties. 

What is Decarboxylation?

Decarboxylation is the process of removing a carboxyl group from an alkaloid by either applying extreme heat to an extract (all other extraction methods) or by reintroducing the mineral salts to the extract (as done in Spagyric Extraction). 

The acidic forms of alkaloids, ex. CBDa, are most prevalent in hemp plants. These acidic alkaloids are considered to have their own medicinal properties, however the medicinal properties of the non-acidic forms of the alkaloids, ex. CBD, tend to be the most sought after, so decarboxylation is often performed on an extract.

Decarboxylation with Heat vs Mineral Salts?

Thermal (Heat) Decarboxylation:

When heat is used to decarboxylate an extract it encourages the thermally vulnerable acidic alkaloids to drop their -COOH carboxyl group. As we'll see below, some alkaloids decarb predictably with heat while others do not. 

In  a study measuring the effects of heat over time on Hemp alkaloids, it was found that increasing heat and/or the length of time an extract is heated has varying effects on the alkaloids dependent on the type of alkaloid measured. 

Some alkaloids decarbed in the predictable way, measuring an increase in the concentration of their non-acidic forms and a decrease in concentration of their acidic forms. However, in the case with the CBD alkaloid, the introduction of heat diminished the measurable concentration of both CBDa and CBD alkaloids at an increasing rate.

The study reported that the sum of the molar concentration of both CBDa and CBD diminished as the time and temperature of the experiments increased (7). 

Now, assuming that heat safely decarbed CBDa, the concentration of CBDa should lower as the concentration of CBD increases but the resulting molar concentrations tell a different story. As heat was introduced both CBDa and CBD concentrations quickly flat-lined and then decreased. This suggests that something more complex than the stoichiometric conversion of CBDA→CBD is occurring. 

It is possible that the heat diminished the presence of the CBDa and CBD alkaloids suggesting that decarboxylating with heat may evaporate, damage, or destroy the CBDa/CBD. 

Potential issues with Thermal Decarboxylation:

1. Heat may destroy or damage key alkaloids like CBDa and CBD. 
2. Heat is applied to the entire extract, subjecting all of its cannabinoid alkaloids (as well as other plant components) to aggressive, thermal decarboxylation possibly diminishing the acidic alkaloids as a whole and lowering the spectrum of cannabinoids.

Mineral Salt Decarboxylation:

Mineral salts are collected from burning down the remaining biomass of the hemp flower into white ash. These salts have a basic pH. When the mineral salts are replaced into the extract, the acidic alkaloids and basic salts react causing the alkaloids to drop a -COOH group and decarboxylate. This gently decarboxylates the extract, lowering the concentrations of the acidic alkaloids like CBDa and increasing the alkaloids like CBD.

The mineral decarboxylation process is gentler and more effective than decarbing with heat for retaining a wide spectrum of cannabinoids. Since heat dissolves, dissipates, and potentially destroys alkaloids like CBD and CBDa, and other micro-cannabinoids, mineral decarboxylation is preferred for extractions that plan on keeping a wide entourage of cannabinoids and chemicals in the CBD extract.  

Why Decarboxylate a CBD Extract?

Superficially, decarbing a CBD extract increases certain types of alkaloids and their potential medicinal qualities and can make an extract more bio-available. It does this by changing the ratio of alkaloid concentrations in an extract.

However, decarboxylation is so much more than just changing CBDa into CBD. Far from a black and white process, masterful decarboxylation can widen the spectrum of alkaloids in an extract. Performed with care, decarboxylation can balance the ratios of acidic and non-acidic alkaloids to create a more whole and complete extract with more whole and complete effects. 

Advanced decarboxylation unlocks the medicinal qualities of an extract by aiming to create a complete extract instead of an isolate. Since the CBDa alkaloid has its potential medicinal properties, while the CBD alkaloid and CBG alkaloids have theirs, advanced decarboxylation will create an extract that contains them all. Masterful decarboxylation can harness the potency of the true full spectrum of alkaloids and build a complete extract, maximizing its bio-availability.

How Does Advanced Spagyric Organic Extraction Get the Mineral Salts Into the Extract?

What remains after the terpenes, cannabinoids, and chlorophyll have been extracted with the Organic Cane Alcohol is plant matter (biomass). This biomass is burned down into pure ash. This ash is made up of pure mineral salts, which are then replaced into the extract. 

What is Advanced Spagyric Organic CBD Extraction?

This rare and once costly method creates the only True Full Spectrum CBD hemp extract. What is meant by "Full Spectrum?" Full Spectrum means that all the alkaloids are actually present in the CBD oil that you take. Some CBD manufacturers only use the isolated CBD molecule, and the isolate simply can't provide ALL of what the Full Spectrum CBD product can. 

A lot of people will claim that CO2 extraction is Full Spectrum, but the CO2 process doesn't reintroduce the hemp plant's minerals again like Spagyric and may not extract all of the cannabinoids and terpenes. Only cannabinoid oil that is made via the Spagyric Organic method is truly Full Spectrum. And only Spagyric CBD can provide you with all of the powerful components of hemp flowers. Spagyric Extraction gives you all of the essential minerals, terpenes, chlorophyll, and over 110 cannabinoids.

Steps of the Advanced Spagyric Organic Process:

• Step 1. Organic Cultivation of low THC, High CBD Hemp flowers: Organic strains raised in organic soils via organic methods on a small farm that is surrounded by other organic farms. Organic beginning to end. When the flowers have matured to the right age, they are harvested with care and attention and prepared for their introduction into the Soxhlet Extractor.
• Step 2. Organic Alcohol Extraction: This process dissolves the elements of the plant at the same ratios found in the actual plant. Beginning with Organic Cane Alcohol Percolation in a Soxhlet Extractor at low temperatures, the alcohol completely infuses into all of the 110+ important cannabinoids in the hemp flower. Because the alcohol is at a low temperature, it gathers all of the valuable terpenes, minerals, and chlorophyll without damaging any of them with excessive levels of heat.
• Step 3. Mineral Salts Captured: In this unique step the valuable mineral salts are gleaned from the plant matter. In typical alcohol extraction, the leftover mass of plant material is thrown away. But in our case the remaining mass of plant matter is cleanly incinerated in the lab until nothing is left but the pure mineral salts. Then these essential mineral salts are added back to the liquid extract for two critical reasons:

1. To ensure a True Full Spectrum extract by including all the minerals that were present in the original plant.

2. To dramatically improve the bioavailability of the CBD by doing a truly unique Decarboxylation that never exceeds 140 degrees Fahrenheit. All other CBD products, including CO2 extracted products, are decarboxylated using heat for a sustained period at over 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Unfortunately, overheating the extract destroys beneficial components and actually introduces unwanted chemicals. Not so with Spagyric Decarboxylation. It is always done at a much lower temperature to preserve all the essential components and to avoid damaging the beneficial cannabinoids, and to avoid converting good cannabinoids into toxic chemicals.

• Step 4. Removal of the Alcohol: The original alcohol is gently distilled away at a low temperature leaving a highly concentrated, very thick "Cannabinoid Oil" that holds all the beneficial substances, i.e. over 110 helpful cannabinoids. In this final concentration, the cannabinoids are accompanied by an entourage of the full range of terpenes, the chlorophyll, and mineral salts present in the original 100% organic hemp flower.
• Step 5. Combination: Finally, Organic Coconut MCT Oil, and the concentrated Organic extracted Cannabinoid Oil are combined to complete the process. The resulting product contains all the plant’s oils, chlorophyll, and minerals in a more potent, bio-available form than the original plant.
• Step 6. Final Result: The only True Full Spectrum Cannabinoid Oil that actually includes all 110+ cannabinoids, all terpenes, and all minerals. (2)

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Why Organic? Does it Really Make a Difference?

So you've heard that organic is healthier, but why? One of the main reasons people go organic is that organic plants grown with organic soils/fertilizers can provide  higher concentrations of polyphenols, bio-flavinoids, anti-oxidants, and other micronutrients than their counter-plants grown with in-organic or GMO methods. (4)

Though the research is still emerging, we encourage you to go organic. We promise that you'll feel the difference because: 

1. Organic can be synonymous with Care. Growing truly organic Hemp in a sustainable way takes attention, precision, and heart. Those committed to true organic practices are committed to your health and the planets, and are committed to growing the highest quality hemp in the world. These committed growers are unwilling to take shortcuts or use more toxic growing practices that larger scale growers use to create unnatural yields.

This commitment and awareness shows up in the food both in measurable nutrients and in an energetic quality.

2. Organic can make a difference in your health. Boosting your diet with nutrient rich foods void of toxins and genetic modification will provide you with micronutrients that will nourish you deeply. This idea of "deeply nourishing" refers to the wider entourage of micronutrients present in organic food that boost the bioavailability of vital phytonutrients.

3. Going organic means you also avoid GMO strains that are: 1) stripped of their nutritional potency by poor growing methods, 2) contain genetic impurities, and 3) can be carriers of toxic chemicals from the use of pesticides and herbicides.

4. Truly organic practices cannot be faked or replaced. Showing the plants so much love from seed to clone to extract will make a higher quality extract every time. Not only does organic tend to mean healthier, it means you're making it easier to get a safer, more nutrient packed plant into your diet that was actually grown with love. 

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Why Use Only 100% Organic Hemp Flowers?

100% organic hemp flowers contain the highest concentration and widest spectrum of quality cannabinoids, terpenes, and mineral salts of any other part of the hemp plant (5). Using only hemp flower boosts the entourage of bio-available nutrient concentration creating a huge spectrum of beneficial alkaloids and other plant components. The leaves and stem do not contain as potent, as various, or as high quality alkaloids and phyto-chemicals as the flowers do. 

Advanced Spagyric Organic Extraction is Organic from beginning to end. The 100% organic Hemp Flowers are grown on our 100% Organic Colorado, USA farm. Further, our farm is surrounded by organic farms and is therefore protected from toxic fallout from neighbors.  

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A Real-World Measure on "Grown with Love?"

The difference can be seen. You can tell that Spagyric Organic CBD extracts are different than other extracts by the deep, healthy green color that the extract is. Advanced Spagyric Organic Extraction creates an extract that is alive with this deep green because of the presence of such a wide spectrum of cannabinoids and terpenes, because of the retention of the chlorophyll, and because of the re-introduction of the mineral salts. 

(Isolates are clear or brown/gold because they contain a smaller spectrum of alkaloids, no chlorophyll, and no mineral salts.)

Further, because Advanced Spagyric Organic extraction is performed at such a low temperature (<140F) in a vacuum sealed environment there is little to no heat damage or oxidation that occurs that could brown or lessen the green color (and potency). 

The difference can be felt when your body and nervous system feel the effects of true bio-availability. Spagyric Organic Extracts have the most potent entourage effect because of the organic terpenes, cannabinoids, and chlorophyll all working together with the organic mineral salts to create a whole and complete extract that your body can easily absorb and utilize.

Again and again we hear that people who have tried Spagyric Organic CBD compared to other extractions feel different and feel better as they receive the benefits of the purity and potency of this style of CBD extraction. Even many who are SUPER sensitive to CBD and normally avoid it because it is too strong for their systems have felt a different, more nurturing and potent effect from this CBD. 

The difference can be measured. Look for Certificates of Analysis (COA) for the crop of hemp that the CBD extract is made from. They should be published on the product information pages for the CBD extracts you're looking at. Spagyric Organic CBD extracts will have a COA with life to it, meaning there will be a wide variety of measurable macro-cannabinoids and micro-cannabinoids (THC, CBD, CBN, CBG, THCV, CBC), notable terpenes, as well as results on heavy metals and microbial presence.

Why Spagyric Extraction Makes the Most Bio-Available Hemp Extract?

The bio-availability of CBD is the measure of how well it can be absorbed and utilized by your body. This measure is fundamental to the effectiveness of an extract. This is because the qualities that we desire to receive from an extract are more accessible when introduced into our bodies in a way that our cells can easily metabolize it.

As research evolves, we're learning that isolates, partial-spectrum extracts, and artificially concentrated nutrients (or chemicals, vitamins and minerals, and/or medicinal qualities) are  not as effective as their wholefood/wholeplant counterparts -- particularly when the goal is long-term health and preventing disease.

Therefore, it is unlikely that a person taking a partial spectrum CBD extract or isolate (especially gmo, lab-sourced isolates) will receive the same long term health benefits that a person consuming an organic, true full spectrum CBD extract would because of the missing entourage of supporting nutrients.

The entourage of plant components should combine in an extract to create a complete representation of the original plant that has been organically extracted to mirror nature's chemistry. 

“...you can really go much too long a distance when you try to use vigorously unnatural chemistry to make a natural compound.” – Albert Eschenmoser (6)

Only Advanced Spagyric Organic Extraction achieves such a non-invasive and natural extraction because it maintains techniques from ancient alchemical practices that were inspired by and designed to model nature, and organic chemical processes.

Other forms of extraction involve unnatural extremes in heat, gas exposure, and sometimes the use of artificial and potentially toxic chemicals. The unnatural chemistry used to produce these isolate and partial spectrum forms of CBD will be less effective because of a weaker entourage effect and potential toxicity. 

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What is True Full Spectrum CBD?

True Full Spectrum CBD has ALL of the original plant components (alkaloids like cannabinoids and micro-cannabinoids, terpenes, chlorophyll, and mineral salts) present in the extract in the same ratio as they are found in their original plant form. This complete entourage of plant components maximizes the bio-availability of the nutrients and medicinal qualities present in the extract. 

Moreover, bio-availability not only describes how easily an extract can be absorbed and utilized, it also acts as a lens through which we can look for measuring the actual spectrum of an extract (isolate, partial, full, or true full spectrum all directly correlate with bio-availability). Thus, the higher the bio-availability, the more complete the spectrum. See the table below: 

Almost every CBD on the market claims to be full spectrum. But unfortunately this isn't true. With the blossoming of the CBD market a huge economy of discrepancy and false claims is also flowering. With this growing unregulated-space, a need to define terms such as True Full Spectrum is arising.

Formally, we at Sarvaa Superfood define a True Full Spectrum CBD extract as: a low THC/high CBD extract that includes all the terpenes, alkaloids (micro and macro cannabinoids), and chlorophyll in the same ratios as they were present in the organic hemp flower that were extracted using low temperature organic alcohol in a vacuum sealed Soxhlet system to which left-over biomass has been burned down to mineral ash and returned to the extract.

An extract is not True Full Spectrum if it: 1) Has not been decarboxylated with the same plant's Mineral Salts; 2) has damaged alkaloid potency from excessive heat used during extraction or for decarbing; 3) is not made from organic hemp flower; 4) contains toxic substances due to inorganic growing/harvesting methods and/or use of pesticides; 5) used chemicals in extraction process; 6) included surfactants to create water-solubility; 7) has lost potency potential from using stems and leaves instead of Organic Hemp Flower.

What is the Entourage Effect?

The entourage effect is when the efficacy of an extract is increased because it includes an increased amount of the original plant's components in a bio-available form. It is another way of saying that the whole of a plant is better than the sum (or isolates) of its parts. By including the full entourage of plant components in an extract, the extract becomes more bio-available.

When a truly full spectrum CBD tincture arrives in your blood stream, your cells more easily recognize and absorb it because the minerals, terpenes, cannabinoids, and chlorophyll are present in a balanced, bio-available form. 

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Why are CO2 and Other Extractions Techniques Not True Full Spectrum?

Many if not most extraction methods claim to create a CBD extract that is Full Spectrum, but this cannot be true because their product does not include the mineral salts present in the plant material that Spagyric Extraction includes. After extraction, these other methods throw away the remaining plant matter. Further, the cannabinoids and terpenes they do contain are potentially damaged by high heat used during the extraction, and to decarboxylate the cannabinoids.  

Remember that research is showing that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts? This means that alkaloids like CBDA and CBD are likely to be more effective when used together rather than in isolated, individual forms. Further, the more whole an extract is the more prepared it is to meet your system's needs.

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You are Unique.

The journey to health is a day by day, second by second experience...and adventure! Healing is a practice. By learning how to listen to your body you are making your journey to wholeness. All it takes to begin is opening up and acknowledging how you truly feel, the rest just follows. Pema Chordron, a Buddhist teacher, once said: 

"If your everyday practice is to open to your emotions, to all the people you meet, to all the situations you encounter, without closing down, trusting that you can do that--then that will take you as far as you can go. And then you'll understand all the teaching that anyone has ever taught."

By opening up to how we feel, we can learn what makes us whole and healthy. Investigate the idea that "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts," and open up to what wisdom it can bring into your life. By getting curious about how all the parts of our life and being interrelate, we catch sight of where the power to shift our habits and heal ourselves really comes from.

Wholeness is fundamental to our health and happiness: from eating whole foods to wholly listening, from whole spectrum CBD to speaking our whole truth. Getting clear on what completes us will unlock a clarity of self-understanding that can upgrade our quality of life.

Remember, you're a bio-individual that is connected to and constantly interacting with the larger biosphere infinitely surrounding you. Trust your body, nourish your nervous system, stay open, and discover what practices help you thrive. Be curious about yourself, find what practices support your unique system with a complete entourage of physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual nutrients.

Start simply. Eat well and sleep well. Connect with the world and avoid unnecessary stressors. Supplement your diet with clean and organic wholefoods. And if your curious about CBD, try an Advanced Spagyric Organic Extract. You'll feel the difference.

Learn more:

(1) -  https://cannabisindustryinstitute.com/news/salt-cannabis-plants-friend-foe/

(2) -  https://www.evolvedalchemy.com/what-is-spagyrics

(3) -  https://www.spiritofhemp.com/blog/cbda

(4) -  https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/07/11/330760923/are-organic-vegetables-more-nutritious-after-all

(5) -  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4740396/

(6) -  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4508874/

(7) -  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5549281/#SD1