Ivo Bačlija - phytotherapist and founder of the Matičnjak brand

Queen of Life

Growing up in his native Subotica, in Vojvodina, Ivo Bačlija has been a nature lover from an early age, fascinated by the possibilities and solutions it offers. Medicinal plants and seeds have been present in his life since he was a child, so his career was pre-defined in this way, and his knowledge of processing plants grew out of his excellent knowledge of chemistry and agronomy. His father Pavle ran a large seed production company in Sobotica. Among other things, the company also produced seeds of Egyptian black cumin (lat.Nigella sativa), a plant that at that time was cultivated without major problems on the spacious fields of Bač, Vojvodina, and according to Bačlija's memories, it also adorned numerous gardens in Subotica. Discovering all the benefits of this extremely medicinal plant already at a young age, the idea of the possibility of using it for the general betterment of people was slowly born, since it is a plant that is rightly called a "panacea", i.e. a cure for "everything but death".

Life in Croatia

Having moved in 1987 as a student from his native Subotica to the area of Baranja, in the vicinity of Osijek, Bačlija began to seriously engage in the collection of herbs and their processing for personal purposes only after the Homeland War. Since the area was still full of residual war mines, the fields and meadows could not be cultivated properly and regularly. Various weeds sowed themselves on them, the most famous of which was ambrosia (lat. Ambrosia) whose countless pollen grains , as Bačlija says, literally "suffocated" the city. Those were years with unprecedented amounts of ambrosia, with as many as 6,000 registered allergy sufferers. It was the main trigger and the reason on the basis of which Bačlija started working on his own production of cold-pressed black cumin oil (thanks to its most important medicinal biological active compound - thymoquinone (TQ), cold-pressed black cumin oil expands the smooth muscles of the bronchi and thus helps asthmatics and allergy sufferers to inhale more oxygen and 'breathe with full lungs'), in order to create a kind of "antidote" for ragweed. Bačlija's mentor and helper at the time was the famous, now deceased, Hungarian Joška Talošec from Vojvodina, who came to Osijek for business reasons, settled there and taught Bačlija the basics of essential and cold-pressed oil production. Joška Talošec acquired his knowledge in Bulgaria where, among other things, he worked on the production of the most valuable essential oil in the world, that of rose petals. Bačlija's already substantial body of knowledge was also helped a lot by Bio Q - the first Croatian cluster of organic production in Osijek, which was joined by almost all Croatian markets, and their goal was to find a space where only organic products would be sold by mutual agreement, so that's how and the market in Osijek provided Bačlija with space for production, as well as a nicely decorated small sales area. Among the multitude of usual stands, Bačlijin stood out with an interesting offer of various natural products. Consequently, Ivo Bačlija founded his agricultural business "Matičnjak", in which he first worked - as a producer and seller.

Lemon balm

Today, Baclija's name within the Matičnjak sativa doo brand is signed by as many as nine different cold-pressed oils ( black cumin , wild flax , grapes , hemp , hazelnut , apricot , walnut , sikavica , Five Tibetans ). It is a significant fact that in Croatia he is also a pioneer in the production of edible hemp oil (lat. Cannabis sativa ). After the Food Safety Agency gave a positive opinion for the use of hemp in human nutrition, Bačlija sowed up to 20 hectares of hemp on his Slavonian property in 2012. From the wide range of these oils and various medicinal herbs, Bačlija also designed numerous macerates ( plant extracts ), of which the most famous today is the so-called Macerate 14 .

Beekeeping and apitherapy

In addition to founding the agricultural trade "Matičnjak", by the very nature of the business, Bačlija also started his own beekeeping in 1998 in Osijek, for the purpose of mixing honey with plant seeds, primarily black cumin seeds, from which he made the then already known high-quality cold-pressed oil. This is how the first Croatian functional honey called " Nigella " was created (according to the Latin name of black cumin, Nigella sativa ). The idea for this type of apitherapy product was born from the fact that bees cannot survive without flower powder, and one of the best nutritionally for bees and humans is that of ambrosia (it is interesting that ambrosia flower powder was often called "the food of the gods from Olympus" in the past "). Given that it is therefore inevitable that there will be some ambrosia in every honey, and pure honey cannot be taken by allergy sufferers, Bačlija decided to make a special honey for allergy sufferers by combining honey with pollen grains together with black cumin seeds. An extremely small amount of pollen grains proved to be sufficient that, if the preparation is taken in small daily doses over a long period of time, it will effectively and without risk to the human body serve the natural hyposensitization of the body to different types of allergens (grass, weeds, alder, poplar etc.) and thus act as a natural, effective vaccine, preparing the body throughout the year so that it does not react too violently during allergy seasons. That's how Bačlija got the first valuable functional honey mixture for fighting allergies. After the very successful debut of " Nigella ", its version for children was created - " Nigella Junior " with the addition of hazelnut kernels for a milder taste, since only black cumin seeds have a spicier taste due to the large amount of carvacrol compound in them, and therefore more intense for children's palates. .

"Honey is the best medium in which it is possible to mix various medicinal herbs. In this way, the best of plants is preserved, softened and used for human health. There is no better and more natural "capsule" than honey in which you can put medicinal herbs. That's why we can say without hesitation that all of ours functional honeys they contain 100% love and 0% chemistry." - points out Ivo Bačlija. Over time, a whole series of different apitherapy products were created, most of which still adorn Matičnjak's treasury of products today.

Phytotherapy and Macerate 14

In 2015, Ivo Bačlija received a diploma from the adult education institution "Galbanum" in Zagreb, where he completed the vocational program for phytotherapist. In the same year, prompted by the research of two Nobel laureates who proved that artemisinin, the main active substance from wormwood, binds to some mutated cells, viruses and bacteria, Bačlija started working on his extract of wormwood in the fight against various viruses and bacteria.

Artemisinin wants to oxidize these mutated cells, throw them out and fight them in a way, by binding them to iron, releasing free oxygen ions and slowly destroying unwanted cells. This is exactly how the famous Matičnjakov was created Macerat 14 , which represents the synergy of cold-pressed oil of the Egyptian black cumin seed variety and sweet wormwood herb (lat. Artemisia annua ), whose active medicinal principles are best activated, preserved and easily used in this way precisely thanks to black cumin oil . It extracts the best of sweet wormwood such as artemisinin, camphor, carvacrol and luteolin and stimulates immune system cells to patrol for invading organisms or abnormal cancer cells, then triggers an increase in the activity of macrophages (cells that destroy abnormal cells) and helper T-cells. which direct killer cells to their targets.

Baclija's claim about the exceptional effectiveness of the herb sweet wormwood in the fight against viruses and bacteria was supported by scientists from several recognized world universities who recently published research results that showed that extracts of sweet wormwood inhibit the reproduction of the coronavirus itself.

Arrange a FREE consultation with Iva Bačlija HERE .