CURARINA

CURARINA is a German line of herbal medicines and skin-care products made by Harras Pharma Curarina Arzneimittel GmbH, a small pharmaceutical company based in Munich. Most of the range consists of single-plant preparations: drops, tinctures and fluid extracts made from passionflower, Siberian ginseng, mistletoe, sage and milk thistle. Two skin-care products sit beside them, a vitamin E cream and an echinacea ointment. Several of the medicines may only be sold in pharmacies, and the line as a whole is sold mainly through pharmacies and the company's own online shop.

The company that carries the Curarina name was founded in 1984 [2], growing out of a Munich pharmacy that its owners had taken over seven years earlier. Its own website, however, speaks of more than 70 years of work with medicinal plants [3], and a Bavarian business directory gives a third figure, more than 60 years [11]. None of these heritage claims is explained, and they do not match the company's dated timeline.

The history Harras Pharma tells about itself begins in 1977, when it took over the Harras-Apotheke, a pharmacy in Munich [2]. The first products were developed in the pharmacy itself and registered with the Federal Health Office, the German authority whose drug-approval work is today carried out by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM).

Seven years later the business moved from the pharmacy counter to industrial production. With the founding of Harras Pharma Curarina Arzneimittel GmbH in 1984, the company began manufacturing its own brands on an industrial scale and selling them both in Germany and abroad. This article follows 1984 as the founding year, since it is the earliest dated event tied to a company bearing the Curarina name. When the Curarina product name itself was first used is not documented.

The founding date is not the only figure in circulation. On its homepage and its about page, the company says it has used the healing power of plants "for over 70 years", which would place its roots in the mid-1950s or earlier. A company profile in a Bavarian government business database states instead that the firm has developed, manufactured and marketed herbal medicines "for over 60 years". Neither source names a starting point. The oldest dated element in the company's own history is its extraction subsidiary, founded in 1964 and acquired in 1989.

The people who took over the pharmacy and founded the company are not named. Harras Pharma says only that the business is run today by a family of pharmacists. It describes itself as one of two pharmaceutical companies specialising in plant-based medicines that do not belong to a larger corporate group.

The decisive step came in 1989. Demand for the company's mainly plant-based products had grown, and rather than rely on outside manufacturers it bought one: Gehrlicher Pharmazeutische Extrakte GmbH in Eurasburg, south of Munich [2]. Gehrlicher had been founded in 1964 and already had long experience in making plant extracts. With the purchase, the company brought development, regulatory approval, production and sales under one roof.

Gehrlicher has since grown well beyond supplying its parent. According to the company, it now exports a range of special extracts, used as active ingredients, to makers of herbal medicines in 53 countries. Its production is certified to GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice), the quality standard that governs how medicines are made. In 1995 the plant began producing alcohol-free plant extracts, and the company says thyme and ivy extracts made there are still supplied in large volumes for children's cough syrups sold by well-known brands.

Most of the later milestones on the company timeline concern its other brands rather than CURARINA. They include the launch of Traumaplant, a pain cream with comfrey extract, in 2006; a European patent on a dry extract of the Mexican Hintonia plant in 2010, sold in Germany as Sucontral; and the renewed approval of Sensicutan cream, a cortisone-free cream based on alpha-bisabolol and heparin, in 2015. A propolis extract against cold sores was patented in 2017 and sold as Herpetino cream, and in 2018 the company licensed its Glycowohl product to the Berlin firm Heilpflanzenwohl GmbH, with Gehrlicher producing it under contract. In 2023 the licensing partner Dr. Wolff adopted the alpha-bisabolol and heparin combination for its Linola Duo cream.

Two investments touched the whole business. In 2020 the company opened a new building for laboratory work and tincture production, the format of most of the CURARINA line. In 2022 it added office space at its Harras site in Munich. A redesigned company website went online in September 2025.

CURARINA is not a separate company. It is one of several in-house brands of Harras Pharma Curarina Arzneimittel GmbH, which lists it on its brand page next to names such as Sensicutan, Sucontral, Traumaplant, Dermolaval and Arthrotana [4]. The parent company also owns its production arm, Gehrlicher Pharmazeutische Extrakte GmbH in Eurasburg. No outside owner or investor is documented.

The business is small. The Bavarian directory lists 17 employees at the site and an annual turnover below 5 million euros [11]. The same directory gives the company's address as Am Harras 15 in Munich, while the company's own website names Plinganserstraße 40, also in Munich, as its address [1].

Harras Pharma presents itself with the tagline "Naturmedizin ist unsere Passion!" ("Natural medicine is our passion!"). The company says it combines traditional knowledge of medicinal plants with modern science to make plant-based medicines, care products and food supplements. In its own words, its products are scientifically backed, and its mainly herbal medicines are approved under the German Medicines Act.

Control over raw materials is a recurring theme. According to the company, carefully selected medicinal plants are processed into concentrated extracts in its own extraction plant, and for certain preparations it grows the plants itself. The homepage sums up its selling points in a short list: made in Germany, its own extraction plant, GMP manufacturing, no prescription needed, and "Natürlich gut" ("naturally good").

CURARINA sits at the point where this pharmacy background meets everyday skin care. Its medicines are herbal remedies of the kind sold over the pharmacy counter, while its two skin products are presented as "medical" care even though one of them is described by the company as a cosmetic.

Most CURARINA products are herbal medicines, each built around a single plant. PASSIFLORA CURARINA Fluidextrakt, made from passionflower, is described by the company as a pharmacy-only herbal medicine for calming nervous restlessness [5]. A night version, PASSIFLORA NIGHT CURARINA, is a traditional herbal medicine intended to ease nervous strain and help sleep. ELEU CURARINA Tropfen are drops made from Siberian ginseng, also called taiga root, and are presented as a traditional herbal medicine for exhaustion such as tiredness and weakness in adults and adolescents from 12 years. The range also includes mistletoe drops (Mistel Curarina Tropfen), sage drops (SALBEI CURARINA Tropfen) and a milk thistle mother tincture (MARIENDISTEL CURARINA Urtinktur).

The two skin-care products are the part of the line closest to beauty. Curarina Creme mit Vitamin E is described by the company as a "medical active cream" for the face and hands and as an intensively caring cosmetic for dry, flaky, rough and stressed skin. Curarina Salbe mit Echinacea, an ointment based on echinacea, is marketed as "medical repair care" for stressed skin and as well suited to foot care. Harras Pharma says both have been dermatologically tested and are free of synthetic fragrances and dyes; for the ointment it also cites a skin-friendly pH. The wording covers synthetic fragrances only, so the products are not described as fragrance-free.

Both skin products are also stocked by the online pharmacy aponeo.de, which names Harras Pharma Curarina Arzneimittel GmbH as the manufacturer [12]. No third-party certifications for the CURARINA line are documented beyond the GMP standard of the group's production site, and no patents or proprietary technologies specific to the line are known.

CURARINA is an active brand. Its medicines and skin-care products are listed in the company's online shop and with pharmacies. The parent company has shown recent public activity: after relaunching its website in 2025, it announced in March 2026 that it would exhibit at the 58th Heilpraktiker Kongress in Baden-Baden on 11–12 April 2026 [10].

The company has stated since its 1984 founding that it sells its own brands abroad as well as in Germany. Where CURARINA products specifically are sold outside Germany is not documented.