All herbs, like all agricultural products, are potentially subject to contamination with microbes, pesticides, environmental toxins, and financially-motivated adulteration or mislabeling.Certain herbs, however, have been particularly vulnerable to economically-motivated adulteration.
Many supplement and nutrition companies now make claims about their transparency and their products’ traceability. Few, however, publish complete data from their quality analysis testing for all the world to see. This year, Metagenics—one of the top three practitioner-channel brands—has taken that step, with its new TruQuality program.
Analytical testing laboratories are at the heart of all quality control endeavors in the dietary supplement industry. Few know more about it than Elan Sudberg, CEO, of Alkemist Labs, one of the nation’s leading independent analytical laboratories serving the dietary supplement and natural products industries. In this in-depth interview, Sudberg shares his views on the state of quality control for herbal medicines and the direction for future improvements.
Several recent surveys indicate that the majority of American medical professionals see therapeutic value in cannabis and cannabis-derived substances, and would support federal legalization of adult-use medical cannabis.
Call it the Eleventh Commandment: “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adulteration!”
Though it may not quite be a divine decree, the elimination of contaminants and adulterants is an imperative that conscientious herbal supplement companies are taking very seriously these days, as the American Botanical Council spearheads a major drive to tackle the problem.
In Cannabis for Chronic Pain, Rav Ivker, DO, ABIHM, establishes a new standard of care for the treatment of chronic pain with medical marijuana.
How do medical professionals feel about cannabis and CBD? According to Holistic Primary Care’s 2018 clinician survey, the attitudes are generally positive.
With the long-anticipated approval of Epidiolex, a proprietary form of cannibidiol (CBD) for treatment of two rare forms of childhood epilepsy, the Food and Drug Administration has put into question the future availability of CBD as a non-prescription dietary supplement.
Summer solstice, when the sun is at its northernmost point relative to the globe, is an ideal time to experience the ways in which botanical medicine can help connect people with the basic rhythms and cycles of the earth and the natural world.
The combination of Rhodiola extract with two other adaptogenic herbs–Magnolia and Phellodendron—create a wonderful synergistic effect that addresses the cortisol/DHEA imbalance so rampant in the 21st century world.
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