New York investigation
GNC Six “Herbal Plus” brand herbal supplements per store were purchased and analyzed: ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort, ginseng, garlic, echinacea and saw palmetto. Only one supplement consistently tested for its labeled contents: garlic. One bottle of saw palmetto tested positive for containing DNA from the saw palmetto plant, while three others did not. The remaining four supplement types yielded mixed results, but none revealed DNA from the labeled herb. In DNA tests run 120 times on 24 bottles, DNA matched label identification 22 percent of the time. Contaminants identified included asparagus, rice, primrose, alfalfa/clover, spruce, ranuncula, houseplant, allium, legume, saw palmetto and echinacea. Target Six “Up & Up” brand herbal supplements per store were purchased and analyzed: ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort, valerian root, garlic, echinacea and saw palmetto. Purchased from three cities. Three supplements showed nearly consistent presence of the labeled contents: echinacea, garlic and saw palmetto. The remaining three supplements did not revealed DNA from the labeled herb. Of 90 DNA tests run on 18 bottles of the herbal products purchased, DNA matched label identification 41 percent of the time. Contaminants identified included allium, French bean, asparagus, pea, wild carrot and saw palmetto. Walgreens Six “Finest Nutrition” brand herbal supplements per store were purchased and analyzed: ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort, ginseng, garlic, echinacea and saw palmetto. Only one supplement consistently tested for its labeled contents: saw palmetto. One sample of garlic showed appropriate DNA. The other bottles yielded no DNA from the labeled herb. Of the 90 DNA test run on 18 bottles of herbal products purchased, DNA matched label representation 18 percent of the time. Contaminants identified included allium, rice, wheat, palm, daisy, and dracaena (houseplant). Wal-Mart Six “Spring Valley” brand herbal supplements per store were purchased and analyzed: ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort, ginseng, garlic, echinacea and saw palmetto. None of the supplements tested consistently revealed DNA from the labeled herb. One bottle of garlic had a minimal showing of garlic DNA, as did one bottle of saw palmetto. All remaining bottles failed to produce DNA verifying the labeled herb. Of the 90 DNA test run on 18 bottles of herbal products purchased, DNA matched label representation 4 percent of the time. Contaminants identified included allium, pine, wheatgrass, rice mustard, citrus, dracaena (houseplant) and cassava (tropical tree root). Source: New York attorney general
When the New York attorney general ordered Target, GNC, Wal-Mart and Walgreens to remove some herbal supplements from their shelves because they contained ground rice, shredded houseplants or yard weeds rather than herbs, Robert McVee was not one bit surprised.
For 25 years, McVee has owned The Good Earth in Dalton, Ga., a herbal supplement store with a loyal following in North Georgia as well as Chattanooga. He has been sending the U.S. Food and Drug Administration petitions and pleas to regulate the booming $6 billion herbal supplement industry for almost the same number of years.
McVee refuses to carry one of the most popular brands, Spring Valley, that the AG ordered off New York shelves because he cannot personally verify that the supplements contain the herbal nutrients claimed on the labels. In New York, the supplements of ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort, ginseng, garlic, echinacea and saw palmetto were pulled in all cases; valerian root also was pulled from Target stores.
“Many of the herbal supplements the New York attorney general tested did not contain any traces of the herb the labels claimed consumers were buying so he could order the bottles removed because they were false advertising,” McVee says. “But supplement companies can take any part of an herb — twigs, leaves, stuff with zero nutritional value — bottle it and sell it as an herbal supplement. And that is perfectly legal.”