To Herb is Human

It started when the NYAG’s office performed DNA barcode testing on herbal extracts purchased from four national retailers and announced that he found no DNA from the herbs in the products. Not surprisingly, the “whole herb” products the NYAG tested did have DNA in them, while the herbal extracts did not.

Herbal extracts are created by selecting the intended herbs and pulling out the desired phytochemicals in the plant using solvents (like water, vinegar or alcohol), heat, high pressure, or other methods. As a result, herbal extracts typically leave the DNA of the plant behind along with other cellular material, or fragment it so that it’s hard to detect in the finished product. Companies often make products with herbal extracts in order to standardize the particular components from the plant that have been demonstrated to have health benefits. Extracts can provide consistent levels of these beneficial phytochemicals despite a whole host of plant variations that can occur from different growing conditions, geographical differences and seasonal changes.

Extraction is a common manufacturing practice, not only for herbal supplements, but for food products in general. But perhaps the NYAG didn’t know that. So when his DNA barcode testing didn’t find DNA and was universally criticized as inappropriate for herbal extracts and unlikely to produce reliable results, rather than acknowledge that his office simply got the test wrong, the story changed. To avoid admitting his mistake, the NYAG has begun to complain that herbal extracts are “so highly processed” that they remove all the DNA. His office hopes to create the impression that the highly refined, and sometimes expensive, processing that delivers quality, uniform products is somehow cheapening the supplements by removing the DNA.

And to complete the deception, the NYAG’s office has asserted that because consumers don’t understand what an extract is, they are being deceived by the picture of the plant on the front of the label. In the NYAG’s version, consumers believe when they purchase an extract-containing herbal supplement that they are getting the entire plant in each bottle. Really? Do consumers purchase an herbal extract for the DNA or for the time-tested chemicals produced by the plant that contribute to better health?  

Herbal extract dietary supplements are clearly labeled on the front of package labeling with the word “extract”—just as vanilla or almond extracts on the baking aisle say “extract.” In addition, the Supplement Facts box of an herbal extract dietary supplement must identify the product as an extract, and most will also indicate the components to which it is standardized. Do homemakers really think the entire vanilla plant can be found in a bottle of vanilla extract, or only the parts of the plant that provide the vanilla flavoring? Why would they think otherwise of a dietary supplement?

So now, in the name of protecting New York consumers from supposed fraud, the NYAG asserts that consumers don’t know what they are purchasing and would be shocked to discover the entire plant is not in every bottle. He has yet to produce any consumer research that actual users of herbal supplements don’t understand the difference. He hasn’t released the results of his DNA testing either. It’s a little insulting that his office gives consumers so little credit. I suspect consumer surveys or focus groups of actual users of herbal extracts would tell a different story.

But in the meantime, New York consumers who want to take more control over their own health should be aware of the paternalistic use of their tax dollars by the NYAG being exercised on their behalf. 

To err is human; to forgive divine. To admit when you are wrong may require some divine intervention.