New review from BAPP estimates adulteration of five popular botanicals

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A recent review¹ conducted by the nonprofit ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) estimated the adulteration of popular herbs on the market, revealing the challenges of determining adulteration rates of other botanicals. The study focused on the adulteration of black cohosh rhizome, echinacea root or herb, elder berry, ginkgo leaf, and turmeric root/rhizome. The authors reviewed 78 publications with a total of 2995 samples. Of the 2995 samples, 818 were reported to be adulterated or mislabeled.

Gingko leaf had the highest level of adulteration with 56.7% of the 533 samples being adulterated, followed by black cohosh rhizome with 42.2% of its 322 samples being adulterated. Of the 200 echinacea samples, 695 elderberry samples, and 1247 turmeric root/rhizome samples, 28.5%, 17.1%, and 16.5% were adulterated, respectively. Licensed or registered herbal medicines had a lower risk of adulteration compared to products sold as dietary supplements, said the researchers.

One of the review’s main takeaways is that the rate of adulteration substantially differs between ingredients. “Due to the significant limitations of the available data upon which the estimated extent of adulteration is based, and the rapidly changing botanical dietary supplement market, conclusions from the five herbs examined in this publication cannot be applied to other botanicals traded in the global market,” the authors write. “However, the data clearly show that a substantial portion of the botanical dietary supplements do not contain what is claimed on their labels.”

According to BAPP, thirteen years of research and publications by the non-profit have found that almost 30 popular botanicals (so far) are subject to adulteration. Some adulteration is unintentional, but most is economically motivated. “The numbers obtained for the extent of adulteration of the five botanicals investigated for this systematic review may not be representative for the overall adulteration rate in the global herbal dietary and food supplement industry, but it is clear that adulteration of botanical ingredients is a problem and impacts a substantial portion of products sold as dietary or food supplement,” said Stefan Gafner, PhD, in a press release. Gafner is one of the authors of the review, and the American Botanical Council’s (ABC) chief science officer and BAPP director. The review was also authored by Nilüfer Orhan, PhD, an expert in natural products pharmacology, chemistry and analysis, and Mark Blumenthal, founder & executive director of ABC and founder of BAPP.

Reference

1. Orhan, N.; Gafner, S.; Blumenthal, M. Estimating the extent of adulteration of the popular herbs black cohosh, echinacea, elder berry, ginkgo, and turmeric – its challenges and limitations. Natural Product Reports. 2024. Article ASAP. DOI: 10.1039/d4np00014e