New paper explores issue of excessive dilution of botanical extracts

By Stephen Daniells

- Last updated on GMT

A new HerbalGram article shines a light on the excessive use of excipients with botanical extracts—also known as fairy dusting. “This is about hopefully changing the practice of some members of industry to give consumers the product they expect,” said the paper’s lead author Stefan Gafner, chief science officer at the American Botanical Council.

Data from published literature and analytical reports suggest that some commercial botanical extracts used in dietary supplements do not contain much or any of the botanical ingredient that’s on the label, Dr. Gafner told NutraIngredients-USA during a video interview.

"In industry, it’s also called fairy dusting, so that means you have a lot of excipient and a little bit of ingredient and sometimes there’s none to be detected," he said.

It is important to stress that this is not a safety issue as the diluents and excipients being used are safe and legal.

"I want to emphasize that excipients are necessary in most cases for the proper functioning, the proper manufacturing of a capsule or a tablet," Dr. Gafner said. "So, it’s not about adding excipients. These are perfectly safe. It’s adding excipients to the extent that you don’t have any botanical, or not much to speak of in the product."

The issue

Writing in HerbalGram​ number 140, Dr. Gafner, Loïc Loffredo, James Kababick, Stacy Wise and Roy Upton, explained: "Experts in dietary supplement analysis have determined that this occurs mainly because of two schemes used by deceptive suppliers. First, certain suppliers excessively dilute native plant extracts with undeclared amounts of excipients and are ambiguous in disclosing the plant-to-extract ratio.

"Second, whole herbs are extracted to obtain specific fractions or compounds that are considered to be therapeutically beneficial and are provided to select markets. The marc (leftover or spent biomass) may then be re-sold without disclosure that it is pre-extracted material."

Dr. Gafner told us that the issue has been on the minds of people involved in the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program for a while because it’s something that has the potential to give the botanical dietary supplement industry a bad reputation due to consumers not getting the benefits they expect.

"We wanted to document the practices to raise awareness," he said. "And one particular aspect was we wanted to bring attention to the definition of an extract from a regulatory perspective because that definition is ambiguous, and we hope that definition can be clarified.

“At the end of the day, this is about hopefully changing the practice of some members of industry to give consumers the product they expect."

Source: HerbalGram
Issue: 140, Page: 44-51
“The Undisclosed Presence of Excipients and Diluents in Botanical Extracts”
Authors: Stefan Gafner et al.

Related news

Related products

show more

Fueling Athletes with Nature for Peak Performance

Fueling Athletes with Nature for Peak Performance

Content provided by SEPPIC INC | 07-Oct-2024 | White Paper

For many years, pine bark extracts have been harnessed for their potent anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, delivering a wide array of health...

ACTRISAVE™ NATURAL SUPPORT FOR SKIN AND MALE HAIR

ACTRISAVE™ NATURAL SUPPORT FOR SKIN AND MALE HAIR

Content provided by BIONAP BIOACTIVE NATURAL PRODUCTS | 30-Sep-2024 | Product Brochure

ACTRISAVE™ is a powdered extract obtained from the patented association between black rice (Oryza sativa L.) and the flowers of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica...

Tackling Metabolic Health with HIMABERB® Berberine

Tackling Metabolic Health with HIMABERB® Berberine

Content provided by Pharma Base S.A. | 18-Sep-2024 | White Paper

Metabolic health is a prevalent and rapidly growing global challenge. In recent years, there has been mounting clinical evidence to support the use of...

Fast acting Specialty Lutein Esters

Fast acting Specialty Lutein Esters

Content provided by Ennature Biopharma, a Division of India Glycols Limited | 16-Sep-2024 | Case Study

Xanthogreen® is a clinically validated, clean label ingredient from marigold flowers that helps boost your eye health with visible effects in as little...

Related suppliers

Follow us

Products

View more

Webinars