AHPA on black cohosh
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
The American Herbal Products Association alerted its membership to the problem of economic adulteration of black cohosh with Asian Actaea species in 2005 and presumes that an evaluation of supplements manufactured since that time would yield different results, the trade group said. A study published in the May 17 Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry found that four out of eleven black cohosh products purchased between 2002 and 2004 were adulterated with an Asian species (1"The Tan Sheet" May 29, 2006, p. 10). AHPA added the Asian Actaea species to its list of potential botanical adulterants over a year ago in order to "warn industry to be on the lookout for this economic substitution," the group points out in a release. Furthermore, AHPA "has since identified a practical, appropriate and inexpensive analytical method that industry can employ to differentiate extracts of black cohosh from closely related Asian species," Steven Dentali, PhD, AHPA's VP-scientific & technical affairs stated...