Luvos

Luvos is a German brand of healing earth (Heilerde), a finely milled loess taken by mouth or applied to the skin, and of natural cosmetics built around the same mineral powder. It is made by Heilerde-Gesellschaft Luvos Just GmbH & Co. KG, the company that the bookseller and naturopathy advocate Adolf Just founded in Blankenburg in the Harz region in 1918 [3]. Since 1976 the firm has been based in Friedrichsdorf-Köppern in the Taunus hills of Hesse, where it still produces the powder. English Wikipedia describes it as a manufacturer of clay-based products for both internal and external use, working in naturopathic medicine and cosmetics [9].

The business is still family-owned and, by its own account, run by the fourth generation. It calls itself the market leader for healing earth in Germany and says it also sells its products internationally. Most of the range is sold as medicines, medical devices or food supplements; the cosmetics, which carry a certified natural-cosmetics seal, form a smaller second line. The brand is active, with new products and recent awards shown on its website.

Adolf Just (1859–1936) was a bookseller by trade, not a physician. According to the company's history, he suffered in his youth from a nervous illness that conventional doctors could not cure. He worked through the naturopathic literature of his day, including the writings of Sebastian Kneipp, and then treated himself. The company credits a four-month Kneipp cure, among other measures, with restoring him to full health.

The experience turned Just into an advocate of living close to nature. He slept on the floor of a so-called light-and-air hut, a simple shelter without lockable doors or windows, ate a diet of fruit, berries, nuts and vegetables, and took long walks. He summed up his observations in a maxim the company still quotes: nature does not err, it is always right. In 1895 he published his first book on natural living, Kehrt zur Natur zurück ("Return to Nature"). According to the company, it was translated into several languages and sold in large numbers.

The next step was the Jungborn, a natural-healing institute in the Harz mountains. Sources differ by a year on when it opened. The company's own account says Just founded it one year after the book, which places it in 1896 [4]; English Wikipedia gives 1895 [9]. The two agree on what the Jungborn became: a centre for alternative healing where Just promoted the healing properties of certain clays. Luvos says it was the largest institution of its kind in Germany in its time. Wikipedia places it between Eckertal and Stapelburg. The date of the Luvos company itself, 1918, is the same in both sources.

Just also started what became known as the Jungborn movement, a way of sharing his ideas about a holistic, healthy way of life. The company stresses that he did not try to force his teaching on others. Even so, his unconventional methods brought him into repeated conflict with the medical profession and the courts. After a doctor from Bad Harzburg reported him, he had to answer before the regional court in Wernigerode. The company quotes his closing statement, in which Just said he stood fully behind his ideas and predicted that twenty years later people might be convicted in the same court for treating wounds without using clay.

Near the Jungborn, Just found a deposit of loess, a fine sedimentary rock, that he judged well suited to both internal and external use. In 1918 he founded the Heilerde-Gesellschaft in Blankenburg to produce and sell it under the name "Adolf Justs Luvos-Heilerde" [3]. According to the company, the product quickly found customers both in Germany and abroad. Just died in 1936.

Luvos presents its founder as the "rediscoverer" of healing earth, a remedy that it says had helped people for thousands of years before falling into obscurity. The company's history groups him with other medical laymen of the period, such as the priest Sebastian Kneipp and the pastor Emanuel Felke, who in its words approached healing intuitively and in traditional, natural ways.

In the early decades, the loess for Luvos was mined at Derenburg and then dried, processed and packed in Blankenburg. The company says the war forced it to halt production. After the Second World War the business was rebuilt in Bad Homburg, in the state of Hesse, by Otto Köhler, Just's son-in-law; the company's history gives no year for this. English Wikipedia explains why the firm moved west at all: the area around the Jungborn later became part of East Germany, and the company was therefore relocated to the Taunus [9].

In 1976 Christian Köhler moved the business again, this time to Friedrichsdorf-Köppern in the Taunus. The site remains its headquarters and place of production. There, the company says, it makes its healing earth to the quality standards that apply to medicines. It now describes itself as both a pharmaceutical manufacturer and a mining company with its own loess deposit.

The basic material has always been loess, but the number of grades has grown. Wikipedia notes that the three coarsest grades have been made since Just's time. A finer grade, called micro-fine, followed in August 2010 [9]. Today the range also takes in capsules, organic food supplements and a line of certified natural cosmetics.

Wikipedia gives a sense of the firm's size. It lists revenue of about €4 million for 2005 and a staff of 15. It also reports that in 2004 around 90% of revenue came from Germany, with exports going mainly to Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Scandinavia and America [9].

Heilerde-Gesellschaft Luvos Just GmbH & Co. KG is a private company. No outside parent group or acquisitions are documented; the brand has stayed with the founding family since 1918. Just's son-in-law Otto Köhler rebuilt the firm after the Second World War, and Christian Köhler moved it to Friedrichsdorf in 1976. The company says it is now run by the fourth generation. English Wikipedia names Ariane Kaestner, Just's great-granddaughter, as the person running it today [9].

The company traces its approach back to a single principle of its founder. According to Luvos, it mattered most to Just that the remedy should be a pure natural product, free of chemical or other additives, and the family firm says it still makes its healing earth that way. The powder is sold without added fragrances, colourings or preservatives. The company's motto comes from Just himself: "Healing earth is nature's best remedy."

Its stated aim for the future follows the same line. Luvos says it wants to keep offering products that heal, care for the body and support health in a holistic way, developed, as it puts it, in harmony with nature. The company adds that Just would have enjoyed today's trends towards natural products.

Luvos presents most of its products in medical terms. Its website presents healing earth as a proven remedy of gentle medicine and describes it as a natural product without known side effects. The company says, for example, that it can relieve heartburn quickly. It lists membership of the Gastro-Liga. The products are sold mainly through pharmacies, health-food stores and selected specialist shops.

### Healing earth

According to the company, Luvos healing earth consists only of loess laid down during the Ice Age, with no additives. It describes the rock as a sediment formed from the breakdown of other rocks. The naturally fine powder is milled even finer and sieved until the particles measure about a thousandth of a millimetre across. The company explains that this enlarges the surface area of the powder, and that a larger surface improves its ability to bind other substances.

Luvos lists the main minerals as silicate, calcite, three-layer clay minerals, feldspar and dolomite. Bound within them are common elements of the earth's crust, such as silicon, calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium and sodium, plus trace elements including copper, manganese, nickel, selenium and zinc. English Wikipedia states that the purified loess consists mainly of montmorillonite, a type of clay mineral. The company notes that composition and colour can vary slightly, as with any natural product.

Production is simple in outline. The loess is dried at 130 °C, which also kills any germs, then ground into a very fine powder and sieved. Wikipedia says the company offers four fineness grades in powder and capsule form. The three oldest are grade 1 (fine), grade 2 (coarse, for external use) and ultra-fine, which Wikipedia describes as intended for children and people with weakened constitutions. The micro-fine grade of 2010 is, in Wikipedia's words, supposed to bind excess cholesterol and bile acids.

On its website, the company groups these powders by the complaint they address. Several are aimed at heartburn and acid-related stomach problems, including Luvos-Heilerde 1 fein and the ultra-fine versions. Others are labelled for irritable bowel (magenfein), for binding harmful substances (imutox), for cholesterol and diarrhoea (mikrofein) and for acne (Luvos-Heilerde 2 hautfein). Some are classed as medicines and others as medical devices. Luvos-Gastrosan, for bloating and pain, is one of the more recent additions. The range also includes organic food supplements and products such as Ballaststoff Plus, Bitterquell Plus, Haar & Nagel Plus and Haut Plus.

### Natural cosmetics

Luvos Naturkosmetik brings the healing earth into skin and hair care. The company describes a range for face, body and hair: a cleansing cream, facial toner, fluid and serum, an anti-ageing series and a set of face masks, together with a cream shower, body, hand and foot balms, and a shampoo and conditioner.

According to the company, the cosmetics are made in Germany, vegan and dermatologically tested, and contain no synthetic colourings, fragrances or preservatives. They are produced to the criteria of the German certifier BDIH and carry the "Kontrollierte Naturkosmetik" (controlled natural cosmetics) seal of COSMOS-BDIH [7]. The company also describes itself as organic-certified.

A second skincare line, Luvos med, is aimed at very dry, irritated and flaking skin. The company describes it as clinically and dermatologically tested medical skin care and says it is suited to the care of atopic dermatitis (eczema). It includes an acute serum, a wash lotion and a body lotion.

Luvos reports awards from the German business magazine Focus Money, though its own pages give different dates. The company history page says Focus Money named Luvos a top natural-cosmetics manufacturer in 2024 [3]. The homepage cites a "Top Naturkosmetik" award for its certified natural cosmetics from a survey in the magazine's issue 05/25 [1]. It is not clear from the company's statements whether these are two separate awards or one award dated differently.

The homepage also shows an "Exzellenter Service 2026" badge from the DQBG (Deutsche Qualitäts- und Bewertungsgesellschaft), which names the company an outstanding business for customer service. All of these awards are stated by the company.

According to English Wikipedia, the company was fined €40,000 in 2017 for fraudulent advertisements [9]. The article gives no further detail about the case.

Luvos is active. More than a century after its founding, the company remains independent and in family hands, with production and headquarters in Friedrichsdorf-Köppern. In 2026 its website displayed the DQBG service badge alongside the Focus Money natural-cosmetics award from 2025. It also announced new products, including Luvos-Gastrosan and a micro-fine healing earth for diarrhoea. The brand maintains accounts on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook.