Dear Reader,
Two new Botanical Adulterants Bulletins (BABs)
on tea tree oil and rhodiola have been published as part of the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical
Adulterants Program. The BAB on tea tree oil, written by Ezra Bejar, PhD,
details authenticity issues with this essential oil widely used for its
antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. The bulletin on adulteration of
Rhodiola rosea, co-authored by Ezra
Bejar, PhD, John Cardellina, PhD, and Roy Upton, documents some of the quality
issues found with the authenticity of commercial products labeled to contain R. rosea. Differences in understanding of the meaning of
rhodiola between Western manufacturers and Chinese traders, who use the common
name hong jing tian as an umbrella term for a
number of Rhodiola species, have led to a
situation where a several Rhodiola
species are commercially available labeled as R. rosea.
The fallout from the investigation into the
authenticity of dietary supplements initiated by the New York Attorney General
Eric Schneiderman has seen another chapter come to an end. In the weeks and
months following the NY AG’s actions, a number of plaintiff’s attorneys filed
class-action lawsuits against the four retailers, GNC, Target, Walgreen’s, and
Walmart. These lawsuits were consolidated into one case, handled by the US
District Court for Northern Illinois. In a move much less publicized than the
initial NY AG actions, the three remaining defendants Target, Walgreen’s, and
Walmart, have agreed to settle the dispute on July 11, 2017. Charges against
the fourth retailer, GNC, were dismissed after the company entered an agreement
with the NY AG. More details on the settlement are provided in the Regulatory
Alerts section of this issue of the Botanical Adulterants Monitor.
Five papers have been summarized in the
science section; two publications detail quality issues with sea buckthorn.
Hurkova et al. report the adulteration of a commercial sea buckthorn oil
supplement with sunflower oil, and Liu et al. present the findings of the
identity determination of 10 samples of whole dried sea buckthorn berries sold
in markets in China. Results of this analysis show that five samples contained
berries from Amur mountain ash, barberry, or species of Nitraria,
respectively, instead of sea buckthorn. A fairly comprehensive analysis of
reishi supplements sold in the United States by chemical analysis concludes that
only 26.3% of the products were compliant with label claims. This collaboration
between the University of Macau and the United States Pharmacopeia found that a
majority of the products contained predominantly starch, showing the need for
improved quality control methods for such products. The paper by van der Valk
et al. on macroscopic analysis of fruits and seeds of plants used in
traditional Chinese medicine shows the extent of information that can be
obtained by careful visual inspection of whole plant parts. Of the 211 samples
analyzed, 9.5% did not contain the labeled species, while another 8.1% showed
various degrees of adulteration. The last paper in this section, authored by researchers
from the US Department of Agriculture, looked at the usefulness of feruloyl
dopamine-O-hexosides as chemical marker compounds
to distinguish among black cohosh and adulterating Actaea species.
This issue of the Botanical Adulterants
Monitor also contains summaries of two presentations given
at the 65th Annual meeting of the Society for Medicinal Plant and
Natural Products Research (GA) in Basel, Switzerland. These presentations
detail new methods to detect adulteration of ginkgo and St. John’s wort
extracts.
We hope that the information included in this
issue of the Botanical Adulterants Monitor will be useful. Feel free
to circulate the information among your colleagues with the goal that the
information will help to avoid adulterated ingredients’ finding their way into the
supply chain for herbal dietary supplements and other finished botanical
products.
Stefan Gafner, PhD
Chief Science Officer
American Botanical Council
Technical Director,
ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program
