On November 2nd, the American Botanical Council (ABC), the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP), and the University of Mississippi’s National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR) announced a collaborative effort to address “adulteration of botanical ingredients” and educate members of the dietary supplement industry on accidental as well as intentional adulteration through the Botanical Adulterants Program (BAP). The program has received support from many industry members, retailers and trade associations.

According to their press release, “The ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program aims to help protect consumers and responsible members of the herb and dietary supplement industry, as well as other manufacturers, by producing a series of detailed white papers, which will serve as an authoritative source of information on botanical adulterants with references to published official and unofficial analytical methods for companies and/or third-party laboratories to utilize to help detect the presence (or absence) of known adulterants.”

“In addition to the series of white papers, The Adulterants Program will include contributions and consultations from some of the leading independent third-party laboratories with experience in quality control and botanical identification issues. The editorial committee, which will advise on all technical publications, includes expert scientists from various universities, government agencies, and third-party analytical laboratories with extensive knowledge of herbal quality control. The Program is also being supported by several leading trade associations in the dietary supplement industry: the Council for Responsible Nutrition, the Natural Products Association, and the United Natural Products Alliance.”

While efforts toward industry “self-regulation” as opposed to “federal regulation” should be looked upon favorably by industry, the question that may be raised by Congress and FDA is why the quality control measures and identity testing required by the cGMP’s does not prevent this kind of adulteration of botanical ingredients. If accidental adulteration cannot be prevented by these mechanisms, it will be interesting to see what measures the BAP will suggest for manufacturers and retailers of products that contain botanical ingredients.