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Valensa International, a leading producer and supplier of saw palmetto and other herbal ingredients, announced on August 23 that it will perform free analyses and profiling of saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) extracts for any dietary supplement producers interested in verifying their extracts’ quality.1
This testing will be performed at Valensa’s laboratories in Eustis, FL, and will be based on the US Pharmacopeia’s monograph standard for saw palmetto’s total fatty acids, fatty acid profile, total fatty alcohols, and phytosterol levels.2 According to a Valensa press release, it will also provide the ratio of the concentration of lauric acid to the concentration of constituent fatty acids to obtain a “genuine saw palmetto fingerprint.”1 Testing will be performed only on saw palmetto liquid extracts (as opposed to standardized powdered extracts or dried ground berry powders) and will be conducted through a variety of methodologies, including gas chromatography when required. Anyone interested in using the free service should contact the company and send in numbered samples. Results will be returned within 10 days of the samples’ arrival at Valensa’s labs.
In the Valensa press release, Sid Hulse, vice president of sales and marketing of Valensa, explained that Valensa chose to offer this service to help ensure that adulterated products and products that do not meet USP specifications do not reach the marketplace, thereby protecting the image of saw palmetto, and dietary supplements in general, among consumers. According to the press release, saw palmetto is wildcrafted (mainly in Florida), rather than farmed or cultivated. Early harvesting of immature, unripe berries normally results in the production of a saw palmetto oil that does not meet the USP monograph’s specified profile of the fatty acids, i.e, they may have a total of 85 - 95% fatty acids, but the ratio of these fatty acids is not optimal by USP standards. Also, inadequate chain of custody issues (i.e., inability to trace the source of the oil back to a particular field of saw palmetto berries) can present challenges to manufacturers and marketers of saw palmetto in determining its quality.
-Courtney Cavaliere
References
1. Valensa offers free saw palmetto analysis and profiling program to nutraceutical producers [press release]. Orlando, FL: Valensa International; August 23, 2006.
2. United States Pharmacopeia and National Formulary (USP 26-NF 21 First Supplement). Rockville, MD: United States Pharmacopeia Convention; 2003:3024-3025.
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