Dr. Jacob's

Dr. Jacob's is the brand of Dr. Jacob's Medical GmbH, a German family company based in Taunusstein, near Wiesbaden in the state of Hesse. It was founded in 1997 by the physician Dr. Ludwig Manfred Jacob and his father, Dr. Karl Otto Jacob [6]. The company develops food supplements and plant-based foods rather than cosmetics: its range spans acid-base mineral powders, fermented pomegranate products, the Chi-Cafe line of coffee-style drinks, vitamin oils, and products aimed at sleep and gut health.

The brand touches the beauty world mainly through its supplements for skin, hair and nails, such as zinc-containing mineral powders and tablets taken by mouth. It does not sell creams, serums or other products applied to the skin. Dr. Jacob's describes itself as a pharmacy brand and sells through pharmacies, health-food stores, doctors, naturopaths and its own online shop. It is not connected to Dr. Jacobs Naturals, an unrelated American soap and personal-care brand with a similar name.

Ludwig Jacob grew up in a family of doctors, where, by his wife's account, daily conversation turned mostly on medicine, patients and illness. According to the company, it was in his father's practice and during his own medical studies that he became convinced of the need for a different approach: to keep people healthy rather than fight disease once it had set in. The company presents this as his personal calling.

A 2017 interview with his wife, Suzanne Jacob, marking the company's 20th anniversary, fills in the early story. She recalls that Ludwig often came home from medical school surprised at how little students were taught about nutrition. One lesson in particular stayed with him: that kidney function can fall by up to half after the age of 50, with no explanation offered. Unwilling to accept that, he researched the question himself and, in her telling, arrived at both a cause and a remedy. Suzanne Jacob and her father-in-law became the first test subjects for a sodium-free citrate base powder. That product, Dr. Jacob's Basenpulver, became the foundation of the business. She also recalls that he decided while still a student not to follow the path of a conventional doctor, because he wanted to reach more people than those who came through a practice door.

Suzanne Jacob, originally from Sweden, trained as a musical-theatre singer at a ballet academy in Gothenburg before moving to Germany. Alongside her work in the company she has released a relaxation album, "Simply Love". The company names the two founders as father and son. It presents Ludwig and Suzanne Jacob together as the people behind the business, and Ludwig as its co-founder. The founders' guiding motto, as the company gives it, is the Latin Primum nihil nocere, secundum bene facere, which it renders as doing good without doing harm. On the company's website, Karl Otto Jacob is now listed as deceased.

The company's early years were built on minerals. In 2000 it introduced a concept of low-sodium, potassium-rich citrate base products. Its own pages differ on how far that claim of priority reaches: the history page says Dr. Jacob's Medical was the first company in Europe to develop the concept [2], while the About page and a 2022 anniversary article say it was the first in Germany [3].

In 2004 two products followed that would shape the brand's later identity. Dr. Jacob's Granatapfel-Elixier, a pomegranate product made with a patented live-fermentation process, is described by the company as the first polyphenol-rich pomegranate product in Germany [2]. Polyphenols are plant compounds, such as tannins and flavonoids, that the company highlights in its pomegranate range. The same year saw the launch of Chi-Cafe classic, which Dr. Jacob's calls the world's first fibre-rich coffee drink [2]. Chi-Cafe later grew into a family of drinks, with Chi-Cafe balance, a mineral-rich version, appearing in 2010.

The launch date of AminoBase, a plant-based meal replacement free of milk and gluten, is given differently across the company's own pages. The history page dates it to 2012 and calls it the first product of its kind in Europe [2]. The About page groups it with the 2004 launches and describes it as the first purely plant-based meal replacement [3].

In 2011 the company released Dr. Jacob's Blutdruck-Salz, a salt substitute with reduced sodium, which it says was the first of its kind in Germany. The launch was tied to wider educational work on the effects of table salt. Vitamin oils came next: Dr. Jacob's Vitamin D3 Öl in 2013, and in 2015 Vitamin D3K2 Öl, which added vitamin K2 and which the company says was the first vitamin D3K2 oil in German pharmacies [2]. In 2017, the year of its 20th anniversary, the company introduced Melatonin B12, which combines the sleep hormone melatonin with a form of vitamin B12.

The headquarters in Taunusstein were extended between 2018 and 2020. According to the company, the new building added training, office and storage space and a 200-square-metre seminar room intended for courses for therapists. It stands in a garden planted with flowering plants chosen to attract bees. In 2021 the family established a charitable foundation, and in 2022 the company marked its 25th anniversary.

Dr. Jacob's Medical GmbH describes itself as an independent, family-run company. No parent company, investor or acquisition is documented. The company is registered at the local court in Wiesbaden, and its legal notice names Kerstin Höhn and Michael Jockel as managing directors [9]. According to the company, around 45 people work at the Taunusstein site. It also says that about 80 percent of its staff are women, and that more than two-thirds of them are mothers.

The company's motto, "Wissen im Dienste Ihrer Gesundheit" ("knowledge in the service of your health"), has been its guiding line since the start. Dr. Jacob's says that since 1997 it has avoided following fashion trends. Instead, it aims to test the most important findings of science and put them to use for health, developing foods and concepts that combine health with enjoyment. Its stated goal is to help create a healthier future. It groups its values under three words: people, knowledge and nature.

Two positions set the company apart from many supplement sellers. First, it says it pays no commissions or hidden referral fees to doctors, naturopaths or other therapists, so that its products are recommended out of conviction rather than for financial gain [3]. Second, it publishes its own dietary plan and states openly that readers who follow it will hardly need to buy anything from the company. In the company's words, no supplement can replace a healthy way of life, not even its own.

The brand's main outlets are pharmacies, both in stores and online, alongside health-food stores, doctors, naturopaths and its own web shop. Its operations are European in scope, with dedicated contact pages for Austria and Switzerland and shipping to further countries.

The core of the range remains the acid-base products that started the company. According to Dr. Jacob's, these supply organic minerals in the form of citrates, the salts of citric acid, including potassium, calcium and magnesium citrates, with a mineral balance modelled on nature. Around them sit the pomegranate products, the Chi-Cafe drinks, the vitamin D oils, AminoBase and newer additions for sleep and gut health.

The company's main proprietary technology is its patented live-fermentation process for pomegranate products. Dr. Jacob's says this gives its pomegranate range a stable polyphenol content. It also makes strong claims for a curcumin-phospholipid ingredient used in one of its supplements: that the ingredient has been tested in more than 30 clinical studies with over 2,000 participants, and that it is absorbed 29 times better than ordinary curcumin [8]. The page making these claims does not list the studies behind them.

On formulation, the company says it avoids unnecessary additives such as colourings, parabens and artificial flavourings, as well as genetically modified ingredients. It states that all its products meet food and food-supplement law. Its statements on where the products are made differ: its product-quality page says most are manufactured in Germany [8], while its About page says all of them are [3].

Its organic items are certified under the European organic scheme by the German control body DE-ÖKO-001 [9]. The certification covers only those organic products, not the whole range. No other third-party certifications are documented.

Social commitments feature prominently in the company's self-presentation. It says that for every Chi-Cafe, ReiChi Cafe and ReiChi Zen product sold, and for every item bought in its online shop, children in need in Nepal receive plant-based school meals. The acacia fibre it uses is sourced from the Sahel region. The company also says it sponsors children and health projects in developing countries. In 2021 the Jacob family set up the Dr. Jacob's Foundation, a purely charitable body focused on education, health and the welfare of people in need around the world.

Dr. Jacob's is active. The company announced two new supplements in 2026, Leber forte in March and Zen Biotics in April. It continues to publish articles on nutrition and supplement safety, including a post on silicon dioxide (E551) in food supplements dated 28 September 2026. The company remains independent and family-run, with its base in Taunusstein.