Estimating the extent of adulteration of the popular herbs black cohosh, echinacea, elder berry, ginkgo, and turmeric – its challenges and limitations
Nilüfer Orhan, Stefan Gafner, Mark Blumenthal
Abstract
= 1247) with 16.5%. Products sold as licensed or registered herbal medicines were found to have a lower risk of adulteration compared to products sold as dietary/food supplements. The data show that the adulteration rate substantially differs from one ingredient to the other. 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. However, the data clearly show that a substantial portion of the botanical dietary supplements do not contain what is claimed on their labels.