HerbalEGram: Volume 4, Number 12, December 2007

The Dietary Supplements Labels Database, released by The National Library of Medicine (NLM), includes information about ingredients for over 2,000 brands of dietary supplements.¹ Designed to help the public and healthcare providers find information about ingredients in brand-name products, this database can help a user identify, compare, and evaluate ingredients and brands.

There are three categories in which to browse and search: brands, active ingredients, and manufacturers. Under brands, one can search brands alphabetically, or do a simple brand or label search. Under active ingredients one can view an alphabetical list, or browse a list categorized into vitamins, minerals, herbs and plants, amino acids, enzymes, and specialty ingredients. There is also an option to do a simple search of all “active ingredients.” Under manufacturers, one can browse a list alphabetically or perform a simple search of all. The labels themselves include ingredients, amounts of ingredients, manufacturer or distributor information, suggested dose, warnings and recalls from the US Food and Drug administration (FDA), label claims (not evaluated by FDA), percentage of daily (nutritional) value, direct links to fact sheets from the FDA, Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS), National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM ), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI); research findings, and current clinical studies at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).² Links to other NLM resources, such as MedlinePlus and PubMed, are also provided to allow users to view the research behind ingredients in areas such as adverse effects, and use in humans.¹

This database was initially funded by the National Center for Environmental Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).² Originally brands shown in the database were first selected in 2005 based on market share and what was physically on the shelves of drugstores, supermarkets, and other retail stores selling dietary supplements. Now the database includes brands sold on-line and by health practitioners. It most recently incorporates supplements and brands used by populations surveyed during CDC's latest National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Information about this database and others maintained by NLM can be obtained at this e-mail address: tehip@teh.nlm.nih.gov.

—Kelly E. Saxton

References

¹NLM. The Dietary Supplement Labels Database Web site. Available at http://dietarysupplements.nlm.nih.gov/dietary/. Accessed October 10, 2007.
²NLM. The About Page. The Dietary Supplement Labels Database Web site. Available at http://dietarysupplements.nlm.nih.gov/dietary/aboutUs.jsp. Accessed November 30, 2007.