Why the biggest number on the Tranquil label is 150mg

Pick up Tranquil and the first thing a label-reader notices is how small the numbers are. Per vegetable capsule: hops 150mg, valerian 100mg, passion flower 50mg, skullcap extract 50mg. No single row reaches the headline doses you'll see on dedicated sleep products — and that's not an accident or a cost decision. It's the formulation story: Tranquil is dosed to be taken 1 capsule, 2 to 3 times per day, which changes what every number means.

Dosing for daytime, not knockout

A sleep formula gets one job: a single substantial dose before bed. A calm formula has a different job — taking the edge off a whole day without sedating you out of it. That's why each Tranquil capsule is deliberately modest, and the daily rhythm carries the load: at 3 capsules spread through the day you're at 450mg of hops, 300mg of valerian, 150mg of passion flower and 150mg of skullcap — meaningful daily totals, delivered in instalments small enough that no single one flattens your afternoon.

If you've ever taken a full evening dose of a sedative herb at 10am and lost the morning to it, you already understand this design.

The four, and why each is here

Hops, 150mg — the biggest row. The same bittering cones the brewing world uses have a long traditional history as a calming herb, and the modern research that exists on hops for rest mostly studied it in partnership with the next ingredient — which is exactly how it appears here.

Valerian, 100mg — the best-studied herb of the four. Valerian root is the classic Western calming botanical, and the hops-plus-valerian pairing is one of the oldest deliberate combinations in herbal formulation; they're in the same capsule because the tradition and much of the research put them together. Standalone valerian sleep products often run 300–600mg in a single evening dose; our 100mg per capsule reaches 200–300mg across a day — a spread-out supporting dose by design, not a bedtime hammer.

Passion flower, 50mg — the traditional herb for the wound-tight, restless kind of tension, historically taken as teas and tinctures through the day. It's here as a small, steady presence for exactly that pattern.

Skullcap extract, 50mg — the traditional nervine in the blend, and the row we'll be most honest about: skullcap's human evidence base is thinner than valerian's. It holds its place on a long history of traditional use for frayed nerves, at a dose sized to that role. We'd rather tell you which ingredient carries the strongest research and which carries tradition than pretend the four are equal.

That's the whole formula: four herbs that support calm and ease, each at a dose chosen for repeated daytime use, declared in milligrams the way everything we make is.

Practical notes

Take Tranquil with water, spaced through the day — morning, midday, early evening is the natural rhythm at 3 capsules. Give it a fair run of a week or two of consistent use rather than judging a single dose. And two cautions worth respecting: calming herbs can compound drowsiness, so see how it sits with you before driving, and if you're on sedative or sleep medication, talk to your doctor or pharmacist before adding herbal calmatives on top. If your pattern is mood-coloured rather than tension-coloured, that's a different chain entirely — the 5-HTP route — and it carries its own hard rule about antidepressant medication, which we've written about before.

The honest bit

A supplement can support calm. It cannot resolve the reason you need calming. If anxiety is persistent — weeks not days, interfering with sleep, work or people — that belongs with a professional: a GP, a psychologist, a counsellor. That's not legal boilerplate; it's the same thing our consultants say across the counter, because a R130 bottle that delays a needed conversation is expensive. Tranquil is for taking the edge off ordinary, explicable stress. The other kind deserves better than herbs.

Finding your pattern

Wound-tight and physically tense → Tranquil, spread through the day. Mood-flat with shallow sleep → read up on 5-HTP first (medication rule applies). Not sure which you are? The 2-minute quiz asks exactly these questions, or message a consultant and describe your 9pm — we'll route you honestly, including telling you if the answer isn't a capsule.