Dear Reader,
In
January 2018, the leadership at the American Botanical Council, American Herbal
Pharmacopoeia, and the National Institute for Natural Products Research at the
University of Mississippi decided to change the name of the Botanical
Adulterants Program to include the word “Prevention”. The numerous positive
comments from members of the dietary supplements industry indicate that name
change was well received. The Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (with
the new acronym BAPP) will continue its effort to raise awareness of issues of
adulteration in the herbal trade, confirm the extent of adulteration in the United States and
global markets, and provide guidance on which official or unofficial analytical
methods are currently available and fit for purpose to help detect the presence
(or absence) of a suspected or known adulterant. As part of the efforts to
raise the awareness about cases of adulteration, the Program has released two
new Botanical Adulterants Bulletins on cranberry extracts and ginkgo leaf
extracts. In addition, a project to create an industry-accepted best practice SOP
(standardized operating procedure) on the disposition or destruction of
irreparably defective ingredients has been initiated in the hope of eliminating
irreparably defective materials from the supply chain. Details on this
initiative and the recently published Botanical Adulterants Bulletins are
provided in the Program News section below.
The
Regulatory Alert section details an
investigation by the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA)
into the authenticity of 15 chlorella powders that showed adulteration with
spirulina in two products. Quality control of ingredients made from microalgae
is challenging, and the results of the investigation highlight the importance
of appropriate test methods to verify the identity of such materials.
Adulteration
of commercial ginkgo dietary supplements has once again been reported, this
time by researchers from Network Nutrition-IMCD in Australia. The researchers
found evidence of adulteration with Japanese sophora extract based on six
extracts having genistein (a marker compound for this type of adulteration)
contents above 1%. Overall, 14 out of the 15 samples analyzed were deemed to be
noncompliant with the requirements set forth in the monograph for ginkgo leaf
extracts by the United States Pharmacopeia. Details of the analysis are found
in the Industry Alert section of this
newsletter.
Summaries
of five recently published papers are presented in the Science
section. Raclariu et al. determined species identity in herbal teas and dietary
supplements labeled to contain speedwell. Eight of the 16 products analyzed by
genetic means were found to contain germander speedwell instead of speedwell. Also
included is a paper on a means to distinguish lavender oils from France and Bulgaria, and
those manufactured in Asia (the latter perceived to be of lower quality) by gas
chromatography with subsequent statistical analysis, which has been described
by Beale et al. An investigation into the authenticity and quality of St.
John’s wort supplements by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H
NMR) and high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) by Booker et al.
established differences in the fingerprints depending on the geographical
origin, i.e., material sourced in Europe or in China. The paper also gives
evidence of the ongoing adulteration of St. John’s wort with food dyes. Results
from the DNA barcoding analysis by Ruhsam and Hollingsworth of commercial
eleuthero and rhodiola dietary supplements sold in the United Kingdom show that
for both species, substitution with related species from the same genus is
common. It is not clear if the admixture and substitution is due to the
similarity of the common names in China, from which the ingredients are most
often sourced, the possible interchangeable use of plants from the genus Eleutherococcus and those within the genus Rhodiola, or if financial motivation plays a role in this.
The last paper gives a brief overview of the investigation into the impact of
steps used routinely in the dietary supplement manufacturing process on DNA
length and concentrations. The results of this study by researchers from the
dietary supplement manufacturer Herbalife show that heat treatment, grinding,
solvent extraction, and filtration variably impact the quality and quantity of
DNA, and that is important to take these changes into account when performing
identity tests on herbal ingredients using genetic methods.
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, especially among quality control personnel, 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
