Alpine,
12 pills for $5 is not cheap when you consider I consume 15 pills a day. Wow!
I will try to take a photo of what I use and provide a link for you to see. My bottles are completely in Chinese except for the English "Berberine Hydrochloride". It might be a few days before I can do this. If it is Berberine sulfate you're using, it is useless.
Results are everything though, so if you have it and try it just monitor and see. But, at smaller than 500mg and less than 3 times a day, it loses its effectiveness rapidly and I do use it in combination with two other herbs. I also use D-Care brand "Sugar Blocker, available on the Internet and Mai Wei Di Huang Wan, also available on the Internet.
Berberine does come from about 5 or 6 different plants if not more than that. In the USA, there is a company that puts out a product called Goldenseal, which comes from the goldenthread herb, but I've only seen it in a sulfate, or haven't been able to determine which it is...
Keep trying to locate it and at a good price, it is very worth taking as it also lowers cholesterol, blood pressure and helps with weight loss. I am starting an email campaign here to contact Chinese suppliers and manufactures to get them interested in landing a contract with someone in the USA.
I don't think I can afford a start up investment at this time and learning the ins and outs of import/export is tough as this stuff is regulated somewhat and my fiancee would probably need a medical license in the USA before we could do any such thing and that might be another 2 years or so from now. I have the ambition, but I lack the know how and the bucks...
But, I have to say this; I truly believe this will be used by many people in the future as it gets more testing for effectiveness and safety. I think it will be proven to be one of the most effective herbs to control diabetes, but in conjunction with other herbs or at least one other herb....