(AUSTIN, Texas, November 1, 2012)  Some dietary supplements labeled as containing “Bilberry Extract” are adulterated with lower-cost, non-bilberry ingredients that are not stated on the products’ labels, says a new report in the nonprofit American Botanical Council’s fall 2012 issue of its peer-reviewed journal, HerbalGram.¹

Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) fruit and its products can be found in health products, foods, and cosmetics, and are marketed as dietary supplements in the United States and as phytomedicines in the European Union. In 2011, bilberry dietary supplements were the 15^th best selling single-herb supplement in the mainstream market in the United States, which includes grocery stores, drug stores, and mass-market retail stores. Reported health benefits of bilberry are primarily in the vascular domain and include treatment of vascular insufficiency, capillary fragility, and retinopathy.

“Given global demand for this relatively high-cost, wild-harvested berry, bilberry supplies are reportedly rife with economic adulteration,” wrote HerbalGram article co-authors Steven Foster, an author and widely published botanical photographer, and Mark Blumenthal, ABC’s founder and executive director, and editor of HerbalGram.

According to the article, the world’s entire supply of commercial bilberry is wild-harvested, primarily in Scandinavian countries and in Eastern Europe. “[T]he relatively small region of growth for bilberries suggests that there is not much elasticity in the price of raw material,” the authors wrote. One industry expert quoted in the article explains that it takes 100 kg of hand-picked bilberry fruit to make 1 kg of extract, which can cost anywhere from $325 to $600 for the bilberry raw material alone, depending on seasonal supply and other factors. Therefore, considering other costs (e.g., refrigerated storage and transportation, extraction, etc.) the economics strongly suggest that some of the lower-cost bilberry extracts currently available in the global supply market are adulterated with other, cheaper, ingredients.

Some of the known adulterants include amaranth dye (also known as azo dye or Red Dye No. 2). [The dye is used to “trick” certain types of analytical methods, and is not to be confused with the food called amaranth (Amaranthus spp.).] Additionally, third-party laboratories have reported adulteration of commercial bilberry samples with charcoal, black soybean (Glycine max) hull and black rice (Oryza sativa var. indica) hulls. Other items include other lower-cost fruits containing anthocyanin pigments, the primary active compounds found in bilberry. Further, language confusion is a potential basis of adulteration; translation errors, including mistaking “blueberry” for “bilberry” or other similarly named species of the botanical genus Vaccinium, can result in the use of improper material in some countries.

Industry awareness of bilberry adulteration has led to the development of advanced chemical analyses – including versions of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and other appropriate analytical methods – that can determine the precise contents of bilberry products. The active ingredients responsible for many of bilberry’s beneficial properties are known as anthocyanosides (or anthocyanins). According to the authors, “the mixture … in bilberry produces a unique pattern set that distinguishes bilberry from all other anthocyanoside sources.”

The article is the fourth installment in the ongoing ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program, a collaboration of the American Botanical Council, the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, and the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi. Previous articles produced by this program have detailed the history of adulteration of botanical ingredients (HerbalGram issue #92), the adulteration of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) with germander (Teucrium canadense) (issue #93), and the adulteration of commercial “grapefruit seed extract” (supposedly derived from Citrus x paradisi) with synthetic industrial disinfectants (issue #94).

The bilberry article was peer-reviewed for accuracy by numerous experts, including analytical chemists from independent third-party analytical laboratories.

Reference

1. Foster S, Blumenthal M. The Adulteration of Commercial Bilberry Extracts. HerbalGram. 2012;(96):64-73.

About the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program
The ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program is a consortium of independent nonprofit organizations whose mission relates to education, scientific research, and quality of botanical dietary ingredients and related plant-derived materials. The consortium is endorsed and supported by over 85 natural product industry companies, independent analytical laboratories, law firms, trade associations, and accredited institutions of education in natural medicine, all of which are involved in the production, supply, manufacture, distribution, marketing, analysis, research, and/or education of herbal dietary ingredients and supplements.

Underwriters and Supporters of the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program (as of November 1, 2012)*

Financial Underwriters

AdvoCare International L.P.

Amen Clinics

Amway/Nutrilite Health Institute

Aveda Corporation

BI Nutraceuticals

Cepham, Inc.

Chemi Nutra

Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps

Emerson Ecologics

Ethical Naturals, Inc.

Enzymatic Therapy, Inc.

EuroMed

EuroMedica

EuroPharma

Eu Yan Sang International

Flavex Naturextrakte GmbH

Gaia Herbs

Gencor Nutrients, Inc.

GNC, Inc.

Helios Corp.

Herbalife International, Inc.

Horphag Research

Indena USA, Inc.

Markan Global Enterprises, Inc.

Martin Bauer, Inc.

Metabolic Maintenance Products

Metagenics, Inc.

Natural Factors Nutritional Products, Inc.
   /Bioclinic Naturals

Nature's Sunshine Products

Nature's Way

Naturex, Inc.

NBTY, Inc.

New Chapter, Inc.

The New Frontier Foundation Fund of the
    Greater Cedar Rapids Community
    Foundation

Ningbo Greenhealth Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

Novel Ingredients

NOW Foods

Nu Skin Enterprises/Pharmanex

Nutraceutical Corp

Nutritional Laboratories International

Pacific Nutritional Inc.

Paragon Laboratories

Perrigo Company

Pharmavite, LLC

Pure Encapsulations

Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems

RFI Ingredients, LLC

Sabinsa Corporation

Schwabe North America

Standard Process, Inc.

Thorne Research, Inc.

Traditional Medicinals, Inc.

Triarco Industries, Inc.

Valensa International

V.D.F. FutureCeuticals

Verdure Sciences

Vitamin Shoppe

Weil Lifestyle, LLC

Whole Foods Market

ZMC-USA

 

Trade Associations

Consumer Healthcare Products Association

Council for Responsible Nutrition

Natural Products Association

United Natural Products Alliance

Endorsements by Nonprofit/Professional Associations

American Association of Naturopathic Physicians

Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

 

Colleges/Universities

Bastyr University

National College of Natural Medicine

Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine

University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine

 

Third-Party Analytical Laboratories

Alkemists Laboratories

Bent Creek Institute

British Columbia Institute of Technology

ChromaDex

Covance Laboratories

Eurofins

Flora Research Labs

NSF International

Spectrix Labs

Tampa Bay Analytical

Media

Engredea

Natural Foods Merchandiser

Natural Products INSIDER

Nutritional Outlook

Nutrition Business Journal

Nutrition Industry Executive

Vitamin Retailer

 

Law Firms

Amin Talati, LLC

Greenberg Traurig, LLP (James Prochnow)

Law Office of Holly Bayne, P.C.