Euromed organised a symposium to look at tackling the adulteration of botanical ingredients. Together with the American Botanical Council, Extrasynthese, Botanicert and Hylobates, the event called 'Economic Adulteration of Botanical Ingredients', offered a diversified programme and brought together world-renowned speakers and more than 70 registered attendants.
How can adulteration and fraud be prevented?
What tools can be used?
What happens when adulteration is discovered and what are the regulators doing to help?
These and many other questions were debated by speakers at the symposium.
Anna-Rita Bilia (University of Florence and GA Director) gave some practical examples regarding how to combine analytical tools to identify adulteration
Débora Frommenwiler (Camag AG) explained how HPTLC can help the herbal industry to detect contamination.
Mark Blumenthal, founder and Executive Director of the ABC, explained what the nonprofit ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program is doing to fight adulteration and fraud in the international marketplace.
Luca Bucchini (Hylobates Consulting) provided insights into the 2019 curcumin crisis in Italy and the lessons learned so far,
Anna Mulá (Euromed) highlighted what the quality of supply chain issues means to authentic, non-adulterated botanical ingredients with references to saw palmetto adulteration.
As a herbal ingredients supplier, quality management, traceability and supply chain controls are key to Euromed. Andrea Zangara, the company's Scientific Marketing Manager, said: "We are glad that so many guests registered for the event, the second one that we've organised on this topic, and the positive feedback we've received regarding the interesting content and high quality of the lectures."
"Counterfeit products present a significant challenge to the industry and a risk for consumer health. With the symposium, we provided important insights into the problem and the roundtable brainstormed good practices to prevent and support the fight against botanical adulteration. I'm sure that similar events on this topic will follow," Zangara added.
The symposium was hosted during the 67th International Congress and Annual Meeting of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research (GA) on 1st September in Innsbruck, Austria.
Featured companies
- Companies:
- Extrasynthese
- American Botanical Council