With the proliferation of companies marketing herbs in venues from health food stores to gas stations, there are a great many products out there that although seemingly cheap, in reality, have no medicinal value and in the worse cases are dangerous. Few companies have the ability or resources to properly test botanicals and so we suggest that before you buy or use any herbal product that you take a moment and call the 800 number on the bottle and ask them the following questions. If they can’t answer these questions DON’T BUY THEIR PRODUCT! 1. How big a quality assurance staff do you have? 2. What are their credentials? (the staff needs to know what they're looking for and be qualified to test botanicals) 3. What analytical equipment do you have? (HPLC< FTIR< ICP< TLC, GC/MS) This is just some of the equipment necessary to insure their products are pure and potent. 4. Do you have a microbiology department to test for contamination? 5. Do you test each lot? (bacteria, e.coli, mold, yeast, radiation, heavy metals, dirt and salmonella should be tested for as well as testing for bacteria on all lab surfaces) 6. Are you following FDA manufacturing guidelines? 7. Do you follow pharmaceutical documentation of how much of each product is in the capsule? 8. Do you test for correct species of each herb? 9. Do you test for the active content of each herb? Before and after processing? 10. Do you do independent testing or test yourselves? 11. If you use an independent lab - What lab do you use? What is its name? (it is difficult to find an independent testing lab that knows how to assess herbs) 12. Are you open to plant tours? Back To Contents Updated 3/10/08