Distinguished Scientist John Cardellina Joins Botanical Adulterants Program

The ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program is pleased to announce the addition of John H. Cardellina, II, PhD, as a technical consultant to the BAP. John is a highly respected and renowned natural products and botanicals expert. He most recently worked as a member of the R&D group at the herb/spice and flavor company McCormick & Co., Inc., where he conducted research on the quality and consistency of herbs/spices and the development of new flavors.

From 2002 to 2007, John served as an expert chemist in the Screening Technologies Branch of the National Cancer Institute. Prior to that, he acted as vice president, botanical science and regulatory affairs, for the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), a leading industry trade group. John developed CRN's comprehensive botanicals agenda, intended to guide member companies in the manufacture of high-quality, and safe, beneficial herbal products. Before joining CRN in April 1998, John was a senior investigator and head of the Natural Products Chemistry Section in the Laboratory of Drug Discovery, Research and Development at the National Cancer Institute. John has published more than 195 scientific papers in peer-reviewed professional journals and has lectured extensively on issues related to natural products research and botanical products. He is a member of the American Chemical Society and the American Society of Pharmacognosy, which he has served as President between 2000 and 2001; he also serves on the scientific advisory board of the American Botanical Council. He is the chair of the Board of Directors of the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia and the Board of Directors of the American Society of Pharmacognosy Foundation.

In addition to other publications on adulteration of specific botanical ingredients and extracts, John will be working on a Lab Guidance Document for analytical methods to authenticate so-called “grapefruit seed extract” (GFSE) and detect synthetic antibacterial compounds which have frequently been shown to be found in analyses of GFSE, per an extensive review article published by the Program in HerbalGram 94 in 2012.