The Uniqueness of Survivor 2 and Survivor Select
by Vic Cherikoff

Products of nature’s last frontier

Vic Cherikoff, a distinguished member of Superlife Products and its development team, is the world’s leading researcher in pharmacology of Australian plant resources. Pharmacology is the study of bioactive compounds and their origin, nature, properties and effects upon living organisms. His research and development into the functional applications of Australia’s wild resources continues to deliver the most up to date and leading edge bioactive compounds in bush medicines to the market.

He is the scientific and botanical advisor to Superlife Products for the development of Survivor 2 and Survivor Select.

In 1988 Vic was also most fortunate to be invited as the only food scientist/ethno-botanist collaborating with 35 scientists on a British-Australian research program in the Kimberley region of north-western Australia, in co-operation with the Government of Western Australia. The research program was lead by Professor Andrew Goudie, Department of Geography, University of Oxford, U.K., and Dr. Martin Sands, Royal Botanic Garderns, Kew, Australia.

It was supported by the Linnean Society of London, a ‘living forum for biology’, whose role is the Cultivation of the Science of Natural History, and the Royal Geographical Science of London, whose role is to promote ‘the Advancement of Geographical Science’, and provide a dynamic world centre for Geographical Learning – supporting research, education, expeditions and fieldwork.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, Prince Philip, flew out as patron to these groups as well as to meet and greet the hard-working scientists.

The Kimberley region of Western Australia is a wild, sparsely populated and under-researched area into which access is often difficult. A research camp was constructed on the Lennard River, 120km from the nearest local town. Here the Angio-Australian team worked closely with the local Bunaba aboriginal people in their tribal lands. The elders and medicine men of the Bunaba people guided the scientists to known plant species that had provided food and medicine for their ancestors for millennia.

Amid a landscape which is perhaps one of the oldest in the world, the geomorphologists (who study the evolution and configuration of landforms) studied the climatic history of the area, and the life scientists collected field data and studied plant species that had never been identified or catalogued by science. Particular attention was paid to the investigation of the nutrition value of Aboriginal food plants to evaluate the viability of selected species as cultivated crops. This is the background that led to the development of Survivor 2 and Survivor Select.

Building on this background was several decades of on-going research as a Research Associate at the University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury and a resource contact at three other Universities as well as co-researcher on various Collaborative Research Centre and CSIRO (Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and industrial Research Organisation) projects. These links ensured that the research and development into the functional applications of Australia’s wild resources continued to deliver the most up to date and leading edge bioactives to the market.

Nothing man-made can claim to be totally impossible to reproduce or duplicate. However, in Vic’s 30 years of research and with the subsequent development of Survivor 2 and Survivor Select with Frank Ellis of Superlife, who Vic has worked closely with in research and development and field and efficacy trials for 12 years, no other formulation comes even close in terms of bioactivity and efficacy and none could replicate it.

From the above background, it should be apparent that Vic’s knowledge of the species of Aboriginal bush foods and medicines is unique in that it bridges the cultures of the 600 Aboriginal nations and covers much of the national resource. It goes further than this as well. In that the natural diversity of wild species segments the plants down into regional, local, physiological and phytochemical cultivars (selections of natural plant species). Not all of any one species were seen as food or medicine across their botanical distribution range. For example, the Kakadu plum grows from Katherine in the Northern Territory, north to the coastal Top End of Australia and across to the north-west Kimberley of Western Australia. There are countless micro-climates within this geographic area where the Kakadu plum can grow yet only several which allow the vitamin C, folic acid and other cellular structures and components to reach the high level of concentration as in the selections Vic has wild harvested.

Another clue as to the importance of the chemical make-up of several ingredients in Survivor 2 and Survivor Select is the absence of certain optical isomers (compounds with the same molecular formula but differ in the way they rotate plane polarized light) of major components as these can co-exist yet have harmful effects on human health. They are analytically undetectable down to nanogram levels in the wild harvested product supplied.

Other work on the differences between wild harvested and even organically grow plantation crops has proven to be marked. The water stress and often poorer soils of wild situations appear to be influencing factors in maximizing the concentration and bioactivity of actives. Thus, no other company could identify, have defined the applications, source and supply the particular formulation of native Australian plant which Superlife Products uses in its Survivor formulations. It is indeed a unique product with a high degree of efficacy and Vic has stated that he is proud to be associated with it.

The journey of discovery into the rare and exotic species of Australia is by no means over. Vic is now investigating new compounds that are unique and exciting and on completion of further tests will become part of the Survivor formulations. This work will thereby, maintain this exciting formulation absolutely alone and unique in the world and far into the future.

Survivor 2 and Survivor Select – avoiding the inorganic pollution factor

Survivor 2 and Survivor Select have their origins from outside of the soil degenerating inorganic chemical revolution. This revolution and its adverse effects on agriculture and human health are beautifully described in the book We Want Read Food by Graham Harvey.

The botanical ingredients that make up Survivor 2 and Survivor Select are sourced from plants grown wild in their natural state in regions of the Australian outback land virtually untouched by man-made chemical pollutants, which contributes to their high nutrition value and potency. Australia has been isolated geologically from the rest of the world through most of its history and the region from which Survivor 2 and Survivor Select ingredients are drawn is one of the most pristine on earth, remote from all sources of pollution, and a great distance from the nearest town.

Overcoming the deficiency of minerals and nutrients in our food is a topic of Graham Harvey’s book. Supplementing the diet with minerals and nutrients is unavoidable to health conscious consumers today. The high nutrition value and potency of Survivor 2 and Survivor Select is unsurpassed and combined with the high absorption rate of its bio-available elements makes Survivor 2 and Survivor Select a vital part of reclaiming and maintaining good health.

Vic Cherikoff