Roots tonics – how legit are they?
There is a variety of roots wines in the supermarkets and on bar shelves. They have names like Zion, Baba, Allman Strength Roots Drink, Lion Brand, Kola Wine, Magnum, Ginger Joy, Ginger Wine with Ginseng, and Pump It Up. They have stiff competition from the ‘small man’ who mixes a batch in his kitchen and sells it unlabelled out of a knapsack under names like Front End Lifter. Some of the roots drinks claim to be specially recommended for those ‘suffering from a run down constitution’ or ‘fatigue.’
Some say that they are number one in their class for enhancing one’s energy level ú taking it to a whole new plateau. The makers of Magnum proudly declare their drink to be with ‘Vigorton 2’ – a popular drink of an earlier time that was immortalised in ska by Lee Scratch Perry and King Stitt.
There are also virility claims because some of the natural ingredients contain aphrodisiacs such as peanut root, sarsaparilla and medina.
Distributor for Pump It Up Big Man Roots Tonic Wine, Shirley Ann Chung, told All Woman that her customers say that it gives them energy, boosts their circulation, reduces heavy menstrual flow and pain and aids conception. She also noted that although the product sells across social classes islandwide, the rural areas show a stronger preference for her roots tonic wine.
According to Chung, the drink is manufactured from a secret blend that has been known only to a Clarendon family for over 150 years. Pump It Up, itself used to be known as Samsons Wine, The modern blend has 27 roots. It is recommended for adults only. A serving size of roots drinks ranges from one to two wine glasses.
But while they are a popular part of Jamaican culture, we wondered if there were any standards in place to regulate these beverages.
Diane Robertson, registered pharmacist, herbal consultant and author of ‘Live Longer, Look Younger With Herbs’, explained that one of the first distinctions to be made was the difference between roots tonic wine and a roots drink or roots juice.
Tonics are for perking up the system, she said, but once the word tonic was on a bottle, it had to be registered by the Ministry of Health (MOH).
“We are not allowed to make claims but we can validate certain terms,” she said.
She was involved in the testing and evaluation of the Pump It Up formula and said that research had shown that it helped to energise those who drank it.
All Woman checks showed that there were no national standards for the making of roots tonics or wines, but that there was some regulation through the Pharmaceutical and Regulatory Affairs Department of the MOH. This department considers the name of the product and the design of the printed advertisements when reviewing applications for registration.
Some makers of roots drinks do not pursue the strict MOH Tonic guidelines and label themselves as a juice or a drink. But there are others who do send samples of their product to the Jamaica Bureau of Standards for testing, so that they can have nutrition facts printed on the label. The nutritional facts reveal that the drinks contain calories, carbohydrates, sodium, calcium and sugar. It does not say whether vitamins, minerals and other trace elements are present in the beverage — information that would tell whether these ‘roots’ are as potent as they claim to be. It also contains alcohol volumes ranging from as low as 12.6 per cent to 17.9 per cent. Some of the labels All Woman saw listed ingredients such as young soursop for nerves, young banana for hypertension, woman back for menstrual pain, raw moon for pressure in the eye, and not to be left out chaney root, strong back and all man strength for energy.
