HerbalEGram: Volume 13, Issue 6, June 2016

On June 3, the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program published the seventh issue of the “Botanical Adulterants Monitor”, an e-newsletter intended to provide relevant stakeholders with the latest news and information regarding the adulteration, identity, and quality of botanical raw materials, extracts, essential oils, and related plant-based materials used in consumer products.

Issue 7 features the latest Program news — including details on the new series of Botanical Adulterants Bulletins, the first three* of which were published in April — regulatory and industry alerts, and a Science Update section with expert commentary from Stefan Gafner, PhD, chief science officer of ABC and technical director of the Botanical Adulterants Program.

The Monitor’s Science Update section highlights two studies on plant samples and maca (Lepidium meyenii) root products from China, the development of a targeted analytical method to detect gingko (Ginkgo biloba) leaf extract adulteration, and an analysis of the anthocyanin contents of various berry fruit extract supplements. The section also includes a summary a recent study comparing multiple analytical methods for the proper identification of black cohosh (Actaea racemosa) root and rhizome.

The issue also includes two Regulatory Alerts; the first recalls the federal charges filed in 2015 by the US Food and Drug Administration against various supplement manufacturers, such as USPlabs, and the second, as Gafner notes in his introduction to the issue, “discusses the recall of St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) herb in the United Kingdom due to the presence of a pyrrolizidine alkaloid (PA) at levels above the limits recommended by the European Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products.”

The Botanical Adulterants Monitor is published quarterly and contains timely information and updates that persons with responsibilities in regulatory, quality control, purchasing, and related departments of commercial businesses, as well as other colleagues in academia, health professions, and/or government agencies will find both interesting and useful. The Monitor is a publication of the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program led by the nonprofit American Botanical Council (ABC), American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP), and the University of Mississippi’s National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR).

Previous issues of the Botanical Adulterants Monitor are freely available from the Botanical Adulterants Program homepage on ABC’s website for all registered users.