Uses of Jade Extract

Extracting from jade isn't as simple as locating a single source and reaping the benefits. Since "jade" refers to a specific plant, stone and even a kind of snail, the uses for jade go beyond a simple explanation. While perhaps jade's better known for use in alternative medicine and improving physical health, not all of jade's uses throughout history have been so helpful.

Jade Plant Extract For Hair

• Extracts from the jade plant apparently do wonders for hair -- women's hair especially. Herbal Essences, the herbal hair-care product giant famously known for its inspiring shampoo, offers a shampoo called Totally Twisted Curls and Waves, which has jade plant extract in it. Company statements and consumer reviews claim that applying jade extract to the hair contributes to more lush and defined hair. GoodGuide.com further notes that jade plant extract may be used in facial cleanser and styling gel.

Jade Extract for Treatment

• Jade extract can't be limited to uses for the hair. The book, "Chinese Medicinal Herbs," lists jade plant extract as a medicinal treatment that also incorporates ginseng, white sugar and other herbs, and supposedly has potent restorative power in the treatment of wasting diseases, sterility and cancerous swellings. Jade extracts also can't be limited to extracting from plants. Alternative medicine cites the stone named jade as a source energy that can be extracted for the treatment of physical ailments, such as the flu.

Extract for Evils?

• Despite jade extract's health properties, though, the extract can also lead to the opposite of health and healing. For example, Stanley Manahan, in his book, "Toxicological Chemistry," lists a series of plants and leaves that can actually poison rather than palliate. Included among these is the jade plant, which may have been a contributor to numerous children killed in accidental household poisonings. GoodGuide.com, though, claims that the extract found in commercial products poses no threat, evidently because the amount of jade extract in these products is too minimal to harm.

The Other White Meat

• Extract from another jade source -- the white jade snail -- comes from Chinese tradition and the country's culinary history. Dr. Ray Sahelian, M.D. notes white jade snail contains 20 essential amino acids and has long been used to boost the immune system, enhance sexual performance and to prevent heart attacks and strokes. The extract's also been used topically to treat acne, scarring, age spots and wrinkles.