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The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), the leading trade association dealing primarily with herbs and herbal products, has modified one of its established trade recommendations dealing with extracts of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba). AHPA’s action comes in response to recent reports of adulteration of ginkgo leaf extracts standardized to both flavonol glycosides and terpene trilactones. 1 AHPA’s Board of Trustees amended AHPA current trade recommendation on “Known Adulterants” to include ginkgo leaf extract with added flavonoids (e.g., rutin, quercetin, etc.) as its known adulterants.
In the past few years, there has been mounting concern in the herb trade and among analytical chemists that some manufacturers may be adding rutin, a common flavonol glycoside, to ginkgo extracts. By “spiking” ginkgo extract with rutin, some ginkgo extracts may be able to “pass” chemical specification tests that measure only total flavonoid content when they would have otherwise failed such tests when marketed as containing 24% flavonol glycosides.
The AHPA Board also requested that a working group of AHPA’s Standards Committee develop and recommend appropriate procedures and analytical methods to differentiate between ginkgo leaf extract standardized to flavonols and terpenes and ginkgo leaf extract with added flavonols (e.g., rutin, quercetin, etc.). AHPA requests that manufacturers and laboratories with experience in this area share their procedures methods with Steven Dentali, PhD, AHPA’s Vice-president of Scientific and Technical Affairs, the committee's liaison (sdentali@ahpa.org).
The AHPA action is being taken in advance of any published reports on this problem. Further, there has not yet been any regulatory activity in this area.
Dr. Dentali told HerbalEGram, “Just as in the recent issue of black cohosh substitution with Chinese cimicifuga [being substituted for “black cohosh”; see HerbalEGram May 2006], the responsible industry has identified a problem and is providing a solution. There is no problem if anyone wants to market ginkgo extracts with added rutin as long as it is declared in the labeling. However, buyer and seller should be in agreement as to the identity of articles in commerce and be able to properly verify that identity." (Dentali S. Email to M. Blumenthal, May 26, 2006.)
AHPA’s Trade Recommendations are part of AHPA’s Code of Ethics. All AHPA members are required to conform to the organization’s Code in order to maintain their membership in good standing. The AHPA Code of Ethics is posted online on the AHPA website (www.ahpa.org/AHPA_CodeOfEthics.pdf).
-Mark Blumenthal
Reference
1. American Herbal Products Association. AHPA board adopts trade recommendation for ginkgo extracts. AHPA Update. Silver Spring, MD: American Herbal Products Assn., Apr. 6, 2006.
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