I recently ranted about the real definition of "all natural" on food labels. At least with food products you do have to put the CORRECT ingredients on the label. Turns out this is not true for herbal supplements.
A recent study1 showed that 59% of herbal supplements contained products other than what was listed on the label.
That's over half. This off label product includes things like fillers and weeds. Including plants known to be toxic! Want some poison ivy with your Ginko?
On the positive side just over 2/3 actually had the herb listed on the label.
But if you do the math that means that almost 1/3 don't contain the plant product listed on the label.
So, uh...
So, unless you are growing it yourself you can't be sure what's in that herbal supplement you just bought. Remember, these products are NOT GOVERNMENT REGULATED. Think about that next time you support a smaller government.
ginko leaf by Magnus Manske via wikimedia commons
- Steven G Newmaster, Meghan Grguric, Dhivya Shanmughanandhan, Sathishkumar Ramalingam and Subramanyam Ragupathy. DNA barcoding detects contamination and substitution in North American herbal products. BMC Medicine, October 2013 DOI:10.1186/1741-7015-11-222
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