Echinacea and Truth in Labeling

Abstract

Background: Echinacea sales represent 10% of the dietary supplement market in the United States, but there is no guarantee as to the content, quality, variability, or contamination in Echinacea preparations.Objective: To qualitatively and quantitatively assess the contents of Echinacea-only preparations available in a retail setting.Methods: One of each single-herb Echinacea preparations that were available in August 2000 was obtained from several stores in the Denver, Colo, area.Thinlayer chromatography (TLC) was used to determine species and measure quantity.From this information, accuracy of species labeling and comparison of constituent to labeled content were assessed.The samples were stratified by whether they were labeled as standardized, and the standardized and nonstandardized samples were compared by ratio of constituent to labeled content.