Adulteration of Selected Unprocessed Botanicals in the U.S. Retail Herbal Trade. Adulteration of botanical dietary supplements through the accidental or deliberate use of a plant species other than the one claimed to be present is a well-publicized concern. Recent surveys of these products have found that some historically reported adulterations still occur despite strict quality control regulations. For a few botanicals, the accidental inclusion of toxic lookalike species has caused consumer illnesses. Since most of the Western market, as measured by monetary value, consists of processed dietary supplements, relatively little attention has been paid to the question of whether unprocessed bulk herbs sold to herbalists and in herb stores are equally subject to adulteration. We hypothesized that adulterations similar to those seen in materials sold for use in dietary supplements would occur. Nine botanicals were selected that had been previously reported to be adulterated, or were suspected to be at risk of adulteration, and that could be distinguished from known or likely adulterants by the morphology of parts in commerce. Samples were purchased from eleven vendors and authenticated by morphological examination. Most were correctly identified, and no toxic adulterants were found. Samples of Juniperus and Tilia commonly contained species other than those specified, and most samples of alleged Arnica montana were entirely composed of Heterotheca inuloides (“false arnica”). We conclude that the likelihood of adulteration of crude botanicals in retail commerce is taxon-specific; while most species are consistently correctly identified, a few are often confused. One implication is that botanicals purchased for use in research should always be independently authenticated in some fashion.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literature Cited
Anonymous. 1985. Skullcap substitution. HerbalGram (Fall 1985):3.
Applequist, W. L. 2006. The identification of medicinal plants. A handbook of the morphology of botanicals in commerce. American Botanical Council, Austin. and St. Louis: Missouri Botanical Garden Press.
Bryson, P. D., A. S. Watanabe, B. H. Rumack, and R. C. Murphy. 1978. Burdock root tea poisoning. Case report involving a commercial preparation. JAMA 239:2157.
Chen, J. K. and T. T. Chen. 2004. Chinese medical herbology and pharmacology. City of Industry. Art of Medicine Press, Inc, City of Industry, California.
Chen, S. P. L., M. H. Y. Tang, S. W. Ng, W. T. Poon, A. Y. W. Chan, and T. W. L. Mak. 2010. Psychosis associated with usage of herbal slimming products adulterated with sibutramine: A case series. Clinical Toxicology 48:832–838.
Cooper, K., B. Noller, D. Connell, J. Yu, R. Sadler, H. Olszowy, G. Golding, U. Tinggi, M. R. Moor, and S. Myers. 2007. Public health risks from heavy metals and metalloids present in traditional Chinese medicines. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health A. 70:1694–1699.
Estrada Lugo, E. I. J., A. Uribe, and E. Estrada Lugo. 1995. Las plantas medicinales y los sistemas tradicionales de curacion del municipio de Dr. Mora, Guanajuato. Pages 261–306 in E. Estrada Lugo, ed., Plantas medicinales de Mexico, 2nd edition. Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Chapingo.
Garzo Fernández, C., P. Gómez Pintado, A. Barrasa Blanco, R. Martínez Arrieta, R. Ramírez Fernández, F. Ramón Rosa, and Grupo de Trabajo del Anís Estrellado. 2002. Casos de enfermedad de sintomatología neurológica asociados al consumo de anís estrellado empleado como carminativo. Anales Españoles de Pediatria 2002(57):290–294.
González Elizondo, M., I. L. López Enriquez, M. S. González Elizondo, and J. A. Tena Flores. 2004. Plantas medicinales del estado de Durango y zonas aledañas. Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Tresguerras.
Gryniewicz, C. M., J. C. Reepmeyer, J. F. Kauffman, and L. F. Buhse. 2009. Detection of undeclared erectile dysfunction drugs and analogues in dietary supplements by ion mobility spectroscopy. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis 49:601–606.
Hausen, B. M., E. Busker, and R. Carle. 1984. Über das sensibilisierungsvermögen von Compositenarten VII. Experimentelle Untersuchungen mit Auszügen und Inhaltsstoffen von Chamomilla recutita (L.) Rauschert und Anthemis cotula L. Planta Medica 50:229–234.
Johanns, E. S., L. E. van der Kolk, H. M. van Gemert, A. E. Sijben, P. W. Peters, and I. de Vries. 2002. Een epidemie van epileptische aanvallen na drinken van kruidenthee. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde 146:813–816.
Koh, H. L., J. Wang, S. Zhou, E. Chan, and S. O. Woo. 2006. Detection of aristolochic acid I, tetrandrine and fangchinoline in medicinal plants by high performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis 40:653–661.
Larrey, D., T. Vial, A. Pauwels, A. Castot, M. Biour, M. David, and H. Michel. 1992. Hepatitis after germander (Teucrium chamaedrys) administration: Another instance of herbal medicine hepatotoxicity. Annals of Internal Medicine 117:129–132.
Low, M.-Y., Y. Zeng, L. Li, X.-W. Ge, R. Lee, B.-C. Bloodworth, and H.-L. Koh. 2009. Safety and quality assessment of 175 illegal sexual enhancement products seized in red-light districts in Singapore. Drug Safety 32:1141–1146.
Martinez, M. 1969. Las plantas medicinales de Mexico, 5th edition. Ediciones Botas, Justo Sierra.
McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, and A. O. Tucker. 2000. Herbs of commerce, 2nd edition. American Herbal Products Association, Silver Spring, Maryland.
Menz, J. and R. K. Winkelmann. 1987. Sensitivity to wild vegetation. Contact Dermatitis 16:169–173.
Moreno Uribe, V., ed. 2004. Herbolaria y tradición en la región de Xico, Veracruz. Consejo Veracruzano de Arte popular, [Xalapa].
Pietta, P. G., P. L. Mauri, A. Bruno, and I. Merfort. 1994. MEKC as an improved method to detect falsifications in the flowers of Arnica montana and A. chamissonis. Planta Medica 60:369–372.
Saper, R. B., S. N. Kales, J. Paquin, M. J. Burns, D. M. Eisenberg, R. B. Davis, and R. S. Phillips. 2004. Heavy metal content of ayurvedic herbal medicine products. JAMA 292:2868–2873.
Slifman, N. R., W. R. Obermeyer, B. K. Aloi, S. M. Musser, W. A., Jr. Correll, S. M. Cichowicz, J. M. Betz, and L. A. Love. 1998. Contamination of botanical dietary supplements by Digitalis lanata. New England Journal of Medicine 339:806–811.
Small, E. 1996. Confusion of common names for toxic and edible “star anise” (Illicium) species. Economic Botany 50:337–339.
Soller, R. W., H. J. Bayne, and C. Shaheen. 2012. The regulated dietary supplement industry: Myths of an unregulated industry dispelled. HerbalGram 93:42–57.
Sun, J. and P. Chen. 2011. A flow-injection mass spectrometry fingerprinting method for authentication and quality assessment of Scutellaria lateriflora-based dietary supplements. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 401:1577–1584.
The Pharmacopoeia Commission of PRC. 1997. Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China, English ed., Vol. 1. Beijing: Chemical Industry Press.
Wichtl, M. 2004. Herbal drugs and phytopharmaceuticals, 3rd edition. MedPharm, and Boca Raton: CRC Press, Stuttgart.
Youngken, H. W. 1943. Text-book of pharmacognosy, 5th edition. The Blakiston Company, Philadelphia.
Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. John Pruski for helpful advice regarding identification of samples of Asteraceae, and Robert Fuqua for photographs of samples.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Walker, K.M., Applequist, W.L. Adulteration of Selected Unprocessed Botanicals in the U.S. Retail Herbal Trade. Econ Bot 66, 321–327 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-012-9211-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-012-9211-6