Evening Primrose 1,000mg

Evening primrose oil is extracted from the evening primrose plant (Oenothera biennis), a wildflower found in North America, Europe and parts of Asia. The plant's pale yellow flowers open in the evening--hence its common name--and its seeds bear the special fatty oil that is used in healing today. 

Native Americans and the early settlers gathered the plant and its root to treat such ailments as hemorrhoids, stomach ache, sore throat and bruises. It took modern research to unveil the therapeutic power contained within the seed oil: an essential fatty acid (EFA) called gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). Once processed in the body, GLA, an omega-6 fatty acid, exerts anti-inflammatory and other healing actions. 

Evening primrose oil is certainly not the only source of GLA; various foods actually contain small amounts of it and the body produces GLA on its own from a number of dietary fats. But evening primrose oil offers an unusually concentrated source, with 7% to 10% of its fatty acids available in the form of GLA. Interestingly, borage oil features even more GLA (20% to 26%) and black currant oil offers rich stores as well (14% to 19%), but their effectiveness and safety for many ailments has not been as intensively examined as evening primrose oil. Nonetheless, some people prefer borage and black currant oils because they require a lower dose (at less total cost) for the same amount of GLA.