Dear Reader,
For the second time since its inception, BAPP has been recognized by a media organization for its work. After Nutritional Outlook magazine’s “Best of the Industry 2016” award in December 2016, BAPP received the Editor’s award for “Industry Initiative of the Year” by NutraIngredients-USA, another of the leading industry trade publications in the United States. BAPP was chosen for the award as “an exemplary educational resource about adulteration in the botanical supply chain.”
The release of the Grape Seed Extract Laboratory Guidance
Document (LGD) in February marked the 50th peer-reviewed publication
of the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP). Reaching
the 50-publications milestone would not have been possible without all those
who have given their time to help write, review, and publish these papers, and
all the companies, institutions, associations, and organizations which have
supported BAPP financially or by writing a letter of endorsement and support.
While getting to “50” papers may be a nice achievement, our ultimate goal is
not to create as many publications as possible, but to improve the quality and
integrity of herbal dietary supplements and other botanically-based products for
the benefit of the consumer. As such, we hope that these publications have made
a positive impact on the authenticity of botanical ingredients throughout the industry
supply network.
In June, BAPP published the Botanical Adulterants
Prevention Bulletin (BAPB) on Aloe Vera, BAPP’s 51st peer-reviewed publication.
This is the latest in the series of BAPBs; it documents the substitution or
dilution of aloe vera leaf powders and liquids with undeclared lower cost
ingredients such as maltodextrin.
Beyond concerns about identity and authenticity, although
technically not an adulteration issue, the contamination of botanical
ingredients with pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), many of which are considered
hepatotoxic, genotoxic, and/or carcinogenic, continues to lead to enforcement
actions by regulatory agencies in Europe. A summary of cases listed in the
European Commission’s Rapid Alert System For Food and Feed (RASFF) has been
written in the Regulatory Alerts section below.
Of the 19 alerts concerning PA contamination reported since March, 2019, eight
were concerning oregano (Origanum vulgare
subsp. hirtum, or O. onites,
Lamiaceae) and four were on St. John’s wort (Hypericum
perforatum, Hypericaceae).
The Science Update
section starts with a paper by Deconinck et al. describing a two-step approach
involving an infrared (IR) and high-performance liquid chromatography with
ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV) screening to detect five plants which are of regulatory
concern in Belgium when present in food supplements. These plants include Aristolochia fangchi leaf (Aristolochiaceae), epimedium (Epimedium spp., Berberidaceae) leaf, maté (Ilex paraguariensis, Aquifoliaceae) leaf, tribulus (Tribulus terrestris, Zygophyllaceae) fruit, and yohimbe (Pausinystalia johimbe, Rubiaceae) bark. The strategy was applied
to 35 weight-loss and 34 erectile dysfunction food supplements in tablet or
capsule form. Higher identification success was seen with HPLC-UV compared to
infrared IR spectroscopy. The paper by Scotti et al. compares high-performance
thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for the
assessment of the chemical variability of St. John’s wort. Both methods provide
complementary data; clear differences could be seen in the chemical
fingerprints depending on the origin of the plant and the plant part (flowers, flowering
tops, lower plant parts) used.
The summaries of the next two papers describe
adulteration of anthocyanin-rich berries with other ingredients containing the
red or blue anthocyanin pigments. HPLC-Vis was used for quantification in açaí
(Euterpe oleracea) and black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa, Rosaceae) by Lee and Rodríguez-Werner et
al., respectively. While the adulterant was not identified in the commercial açaí
samples, the anthocyanin pattern in some of the samples labeled to contain
black chokeberry is in agreement with published data for black rice (Oryza sativa, Poaceae).
Finally, Navarro et al., have published a paper on high-performance
liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-QTOF-MS)
analysis of 272 dietary supplements linked to liver injury in patients
requiring treatment in one of the hospitals participating in the Drug-Induced Liver
Injury Network (DILIN). While the total number of botanical dietary supplements
analyzed in this study was not provided, the authors reported that 44% of the
herbal products either lacked one or more ingredient, or contained additional
ingredients not declared on the label. This publication highlights the
importance of analytical characterization of botanically-based products when
assessing causality in adverse event reports.
We hope that the information provided in this issue of
the Botanical Adulterants Monitor will be useful. Please
do not hesitate to share the contents of this newsletter with your colleagues.
We hope that the information will help to avoid adulterated ingredients’ finding
their way into the supply chain for herbal dietary supplements, natural
cosmetics, personal care, and other finished botanical products.
Stefan Gafner,
PhDChief Science Officer
American Botanical Council
Technical Director, ABC-AHP-NCNPR
Botanical Adulterants Program
