Femisanit

Femisanit is a German intimate-care and women's-health line made by Biokanol Pharma GmbH, an owner-managed pharmaceutical company based in Rastatt, in the Baden region of south-west Germany. The range is built around sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) and is aimed above all at vaginal dryness. It began as an oral food supplement in capsule form and later grew to include an external intimate cream and an intimate wash lotion, all sold without prescription through pharmacies and the company's own shop.

The line stands out for its hormone-free approach. From the start it was presented as an option for women who cannot or do not want to use hormonal treatments, including those recovering from breast cancer. The brand remains active, and its main website was still being updated in 2026.

Femisanit has no founder of its own on record; it was developed inside its parent company. Biokanol Pharma was founded in 1998 by the pharmacist Sylvia Weimer-Hartmann, who, according to the company, brought many years of experience in the manufacture and distribution of medicines to the new business [2]. She also serves as its managing director, as the company's legal notice confirms [5]. The about page spells her first name "Sylvia" in its text but captions her photograph as "Sylwia"; the company's other pages use "Sylvia".

Biokanol describes women's health as one of its core areas. The company says its long experience and work with outside experts allowed it to develop products based mainly on plant ingredients, and it names the Femisanit capsules, cream and wash lotion as one of the two focal points of that area, alongside a supplement called Bonasanit plus.

The brand's own website gives no start date for the Femisanit line; the only year it states is 1998, which is when the parent company was founded [2]. The earliest public trace of the line itself is a paid press release published on the pharmacy trade site APOTHEKE ADHOC on 2 April 2012, headed "New for vaginal dryness: Femisanit from Biokanol" [10]. It announced that the capsules would be available from April that year in pharmacies and through femisanit.de, as a two-month pack of 60 vegetarian capsules.

The 2012 release set out the reasoning behind the product. It stated that one in five women going through menopause, and most breast-cancer patients, live with vaginal dryness, and that moisturising creams and gels bring only short-term relief. Femisanit was described as combining, for the first time, a sea-buckthorn extract called SBA24 with vitamins and other plant compounds. The release also claimed that this nutrient combination had been used successfully in Scandinavia for more than 15 years, and quoted the Swedish gynaecologist Ingemar Joellson in support [10]. Gynaecologists and pharmacists were offered a free information leaflet titled "Für meine Weiblichkeit!" ("For my femininity!") and sample packs.

The range later moved beyond capsules. A women's-health advice site, Netzwerk Frauengesundheit, which had first written about the Femisanit capsules in 2016, added an update in 2018 introducing the Femisanit intimate cream, an external product with sea-buckthorn extract, hyaluronic acid, lecithin, lactic acid and rosemary oil [11]. An intimate wash lotion followed as a third product. Over the same period the capsules changed from the "vegetarian" description of 2012 to being labelled vegan today.

Femisanit belongs to Biokanol Pharma GmbH, a mid-sized, owner-run company registered in Rastatt [2]. No sale or change of ownership of the brand is documented. Biokanol groups its business into four divisions: products for healthy people, products for healthy animals, contract manufacturing and logistics. Besides its women's-health products, its range includes Probenecid Biokanol, an isotonic saline solution and Alpenrose Käselab. The femisanit.de website is operated by Biokanol, and the brand's social media accounts are the parent company's women's-health channels rather than Femisanit-only profiles.

Femisanit calls itself a "holistic intimate-care concept for women". The company's guiding line, used as the heading of its about page, is "women's health by women for women", and it lists its values as respect, trust and responsibility. Its stated goal for the cream is to offer "the best of nature" for the care of the female intimate area.

Education plays a large part in how the brand presents itself. The company says it wants to inform women about intimate care, vaginal dryness, menopause, the years after menopause and nutrition, arguing that taking responsibility for one's health requires knowledge. Its website hosts a magazine section, articles on individual ingredients and a series of video interviews with gynaecologists. Femisanit's site states that millions of women in Germany suffer from vaginal dryness, more than seven million of them during menopause, and that only about a quarter of those affected are thought to discuss it with a doctor.

Much of the positioning rests on what the products leave out. According to the brand, the intimate cream contains no fragrance allergens, paraffins, parabens, hormones, silicones, mineral oils, microplastics, perfume or colourants, and it is vegan [3]. The pH-neutral and hormone-free messages are repeated across the site.

Beyond its products, Biokanol points to local and international social engagement. The company says it has sponsored a school support association in Rastatt for many years and provides free premises and staff support to the aid project "Insulin zum Leben" ("Insulin for Life") [4].

The line has three products, each built around sea buckthorn. The plant is known in German folk usage as the "lemon of the north" because its berries contain several times more vitamin C than lemons, a point the brand repeats on its ingredient pages.

Femisanit capsules. The original product is a food supplement taken by mouth. Its main ingredient is sea-buckthorn oil from the seeds and fruit pulp, which makes up 72 per cent of the contents, together with vitamin A from beta-carotene, vitamin E and the omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid [8]. The capsules come in packs of 60 or 180 and are labelled suitable for vegans. The company states that vitamin A helps to maintain normal skin and mucous membranes. Netzwerk Frauengesundheit described the extract in the capsules as SBA24, obtained from the kernel and fruit pulp of the berry and rich in a balanced mix of omega fatty acids [11].

Femisanit intimate cream. The cream comes in a 50 ml airless dispenser. Biokanol says it combines a fully natural sea-buckthorn extract with both low- and high-molecular hyaluronic acid, a moisture-binding substance found naturally in the body, to help the mucous membranes hold water. Lactic acid is added, the company says, to keep the vaginal area at a healthy pH and support a balanced intimate flora.

Femisanit intimate wash lotion. The wash lotion pairs sea-buckthorn extract with rosemary extract and jojoba oil, with sunflower oil, vitamin E and lactic acid also listed among its ingredients.

The brand's own pages are not fully consistent about the source of the sea-buckthorn extract in the topical products. The homepage says it is taken from the kernel and the fruit pulp [1], while the newer cream page and the ingredient page refer to the fruit pulp only [3]. The ingredient page adds that the extract is obtained by CO2 extraction, without solvents such as methanol or acetone [6].

The scientific case for oral sea-buckthorn oil has been discussed outside the company. Netzwerk Frauengesundheit summarised a 2014 double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in the journal Maturitas, in which 116 postmenopausal women took sea-buckthorn oil from the seeds and pulp for three months. According to that summary, the oil improved the integrity of the lining of the vagina, but the women's own reported symptoms improved in about half of cases in both the oil and placebo groups, a difference that was not significant; no oestrogen-like effect was found [11]. No third-party certifications are documented for the range.

Femisanit is an active brand. The cream's product page on femisanit.de was updated in August 2026, and the capsule page on Biokanol's women's-health site in June 2026. The most recent articles in the brand's online magazine date from June 2024. All three products are still sold over the counter in German pharmacies and through Biokanol's online shop, as well as by phone, e-mail, fax and post. The wash lotion is still listed on the homepage and in the site's navigation, but its dedicated product page could not be reached in October 2026; whether the product has been discontinued has not been established.