Two prestigious professional societies of medicinal plant research experts endorse the Botanical Adulterants Program

The American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP) and the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research (GA) have announced their endorsement of the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program.

ASP is North America's leading organization of scientists with interest in research related to and dealing with natural products, including medicinal plants, fungi, marine organisms, and microbial natural products. Founded in 1959, ASP now has a membership of more than 1,100 pharmacognosists, natural products chemists, botanists, molecular biologists, and other medicinal plant research experts, representing more than 60 countries from around the world. (more at http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=26661.0&dlv_id=67908).

Founded in 1953 under the name “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Arzneipflanzen-Forschung und -Therapie” by a small group of German scientists, the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research is currently the largest international scientific society devoted to medicinal plant research, with over 1,300 members from more than 90 countries. The society is comprised of people with interest in plant sciences, pharmacognosy, phytochemistry, pharmacology, phytotherapy, and basic research as it relates to botanicals (more at http://cms.herbalgram.org/press/2014/GA_Endorses_Adulterants_Program.html).

The endorsement of the Botanical Adulterants Program by the two leading professional organizations in natural products research underscores that the unlabeled substitution and/or dilution of herbal materials with undisclosed lower cost ingredients is a matter of vital global concern and that leading scientific experts in the field believe that the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program is a vitally-needed and helpful approach to tackle the issue of adulteration of botanicals.