The National Animal Supplement Council (NASC), an industry trade association of suppliers, manufacturers, and marketers of dietary ingredients and supplements for pets, has endorsed the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program. The Botanical Adulterants Program is a coalition of three nonprofits: the American Botanical Council (ABC), the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP), and the University of Mississippi’s National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR).

Founded in 2001 by President and Chair of the Board of Directors Bill Bookout, the NASC is dedicated to protecting and enhancing the health of companion animals (e.g., cats, dogs, and horses) throughout the United States. NASC members include manufacturers, raw material suppliers, distributors, veterinarians, retailers, and other pet professionals. Through its innovative Preferred Suppliers Program, suppliers, manufacturers, and testing laboratories can submit documentation to verify consistent quality of raw materials and finished products along every step of the supply chain.

Bookout notified Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of ABC and director of the Botanical Adulterants Program, of NASC’s endorsement in a letter dated June 7, 2016. “We applaud [the Program’s] efforts to proactively address the issues surrounding quality and adulteration of these important raw materials,” he wrote. “[H]aving trust, radical transparency, and verification in the supply chain is arguably the most important issue facing the human or animal supplement industries today.”

NASC joins other leading natural products industry and professional associations that have underwritten and endorsed the Botanical Adulterants Program, including the Council for Responsible Nutrition, the Natural Products Association, and the United Natural Products Alliance. The Program is also supported by numerous professional research societies, trade associations, and research centers in the US, Canada, Europe, and in other parts of the world.

“We are grateful to welcome the members of NASC to our growing ranks of organizations and other responsible parties that are involved with the use of botanical ingredients for their myriad health benefits,” Blumenthal said. “This is the first organization that focuses on animal health that has endorsed our educational efforts to try to prevent and reduce fraud in the sale of botanical raw materials and extracts used in the manufacture of dietary supplements, foods, cosmetics, and other consumer — and now, animal — products.”

The ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program publishes a quarterly e-newsletter, the Botanical Adulterants Monitor, which highlights new scientific publications related to botanical authenticity and analysis to detect possible adulteration, recent regulatory actions, and Program news. Issue 7 of the Monitor, released in June 2016, contains updates regarding detection of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba, Ginkgoaceae) adulteration and maca (Lepidium meyenii, Brassicaceae) authentication in China, among other topics. These open-access articles are available on the Program’s webpage.

Also available online is the Program’s series of Laboratory Guidance Documents (LGDs), which help industry and third-party analytical labs determine the most effective analytical methods for detecting adulteration and authenticating botanical raw materials and extracts. The Program also publishes extensively peer-reviewed Bulletins and in-depth articles on adulterated herbs in the global marketplace.

—ABC Staff