Food Supplements: moving from the ‘Wild West’ towards quality and compliance
Testing methods, QC and PT
To safeguard the health of consumers, uphold the reputation of manufacturers and retailers, and mitigate costs associated with product recalls, analytical testing of supplement raw materials and finished products is essential. Since the term ‘supplements’ can cover an extremely broad range of materials, from herbal medicines and remedies to food additives, the potential range of test analytes is very large, and many analytical techniques can be applied. However, the lack of analytical methods for many ingredients and products in the supplements marketplace presents an ongoing challenge to manufacturers and regulators alike when it comes to proving quality, safety, and consistency [38]. Supplement testing typically falls into two categories, albeit with a significant area of overlap: firstly quality testing for efficacy, and the presence of sufficient or appropriate quantities of components of interest, and secondly contaminant testing for the presence of undesirable compounds, elements or micro-organisms.
Identification of supplements
Herbal supplements are typically plants - or parts of plants, such as flowers, seeds, roots, leaves or bark - in a relatively unprocessed, albeit dried, form. The identification processes for such products are specific to the material in question, and include the evaluation of macroscopic and microscopic characteristics, as well as testing using chromatographic procedures. The most common herbal supplements often have dedicated monographs in national or international pharmacopeias, outlining tests, acceptance criteria for identification, and contaminant limits. These monographs utilise selected analytical methods developed to identify species-specific metabolites in herbal plants. Taking ginseng as an example, High Performance-Thin Layer Chromatography (HP-TLC) is an excellent method for ‘fingerprinting’ the ginsenoside composition in Panax plants, including P. ginseng, P. quinquefolium and P. notoginseng [36]. Fingerprinting involves comparing the phytochemical components of a material with those of a known, authentic standard, providing both qualitative and quantitative insights into the material.
GlcO
OH
Ginsenoside Re
OH
OGlc - Rha
10
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