A survey reveals that less than half of herbal products offer the recommended dose or ingredients.

There has been an almost four fold increase in sales of herbal remedies and other supplements in the USA over the last ten years. As yet, such products don't have to be standardized. To assess variability in herbal products bought by the public, researchers at the University of Minnesota have carried out a survey of the ten most popular herbal remedies.

These are: echinacea, St John's Wort, ginkgo biloba, garlic, saw palmetto, ginseng, goldenseal, aloe vera, Siberian ginseng and valerian. There were as many as 880 different products offering these herbs. The researchers checked recommended dosage and ingredients against label information. This showed that overall, only 43 per cent of the products were consistent with benchmark values of ingredients and doses. Echinacea had the most product variability, ginseng the least.

It's not surprising, perhaps, that there is such variability in herbal products. The content depends greatly on the part of the plant used and the formulation. A tea made from leaves is a very different product from a capsule made from a root. But maybe manufacturers could do more to inform the consumer? It's certainly wise to scrutinise the label carefully before you buy a herbal product.

Source

Archives of Internal Medicine 27th October 2003