Saw Palmetto Laboratory Guidance
Document Published by Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program
Products containing saw palmetto berries and/or their extracts
are among the most popular botanical dietary supplements in the United States.
However, the continuous demand and lower-than-expected harvest volumes have led to a situation where the saw
palmetto berry supply cannot keep up with the demand. Consequently,
prices for saw palmetto berries have increased substantially in recent years,
leading to a financial incentive to substitute or dilute saw palmetto extracts
with vegetable oil, or designer fatty acid blends from plant and/or animal fats
to attempt to mimic the saw palmetto fatty acid composition.
Fraudulent suppliers of adulterated ingredients labeled
as saw palmetto extracts take advantage of the ubiquitous occurrence of fatty
acids in oils and fats. Routine analytical methods using gas chromatography
(GC) for fatty acids are not suitable to detect adulteration if the method
measures only the total fatty acid content, and even the determination of
individual fatty acids may not be enough to ensure saw palmetto identity.
The new LGD was written by Stefan Gafner, PhD, chief science officer of the American
Botanical Council (ABC), and the technical director of BAPP. The LGD provides
an evaluation of the usefulness of 34 published analytical methods to detect
saw palmetto berry, and berry extract adulteration, and summarizes the main
advantages and disadvantages of each method regarding its suitability for use
in a quality control laboratory. In addition to the assessment of the
analytical methods, the document details the chemical composition of saw palmetto
and many of the known adulterants. The saw palmetto LGD has been peer-reviewed
by 25 experts from third-party contract analytical laboratories, nonprofit
scientific organizations, and the herbal industry.
Reference
- Gafner
S. Saw palmetto extract laboratory guidance document. Austin, TX: ABC-AHP-NCNPR
Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program. 2019:1-14.
