Tag Archives: herbalism

alternative-health

DEFENDING HERBALISM, OR NOT

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Traci Piccard
Traci Piccard

This is a guest post by Traci Piccard at Fellow Workers Farm Apothecary and I thought it was so right on point that I wanted to share it with you:

DEFENDING HERBALISM, OR NOT
At one point in my herbalist journey I refused to read or listen to anything which criticized my path. Those jerks! What is their problem? Herbs are great! Haven’t they read my blog?!?!?! And then I sought these people out, just to get mysef.

My love of herbal medicines was fragile, like a precious bit of fine China, something I needed to protect and guard. And I felt like I needed to defend my right to use herbs and to make my own health choices, and I was interested in being right.

I would pick out the one point that they got wrong, while ignoring the parts which may have taught me something. Why can’t everyone see my way?!?! How can they possibly not GET this!?!?

But now, I don’t give a rat’s ass.

I have moved through the idea that other people need to believe what I believe. (Mostly.) I actively seek out people who don’t use herbs, and I am interested in why some people dislike them, make other choices or can’t access them.

I have tried things. like actually tried, not just read about them in a book or a magazine.

I have seen examples where herbs and other “alternative” healthcare have not worked, are not the best choice, or are promoted in actively manipulative, confusing or even potentially harmful ways.

And ultimately, I feel less threatened by others who want to prove me wrong. Go ahead. In fact, it would be helpful. I will read your critiques now, and sometimes they are right, sometimes wrong, sometimes both. I feel more confident in my use of plant medicines and my connection with plants, as well as my movement and nutrition choices, but I am always willing to learn more, to dig deeper, to ask questions, even of myself.

And I can see the humor in our humanity, the way we divide ourselves, the way we all form our groups and our paradigms and our dogmas and stick onto them like medicinal leeches. I am this and you are that. It is freeing to unstick myself from the sweaty leg of any one side, any one path.

And as I get older I have more of a grasp of what it means for a person and an idea to mature. I do love the new, fresh, youthful rage-against-the-system energy that innovates and wears hot pink and turns it up and boinks everything that moves, and must yell THIS WORKS in all caps on every herbal forum. Juicy, but fragile. Now I am falling in love with this more mature phase that brushes off others’ hyperbole and panic, lets my actions speak for themselves and commits to just keep walking, outlasting the haters. Well, tries to.

I still want to debate people who disagree with me, respectfully, and I still want to share my love and joy around plant medicines. And, OK, I occasionally still craft long silly arguments in my head. But I am not afraid of the other opinions and approaches anymore. And there are many sides, not just 2, not just for vs against, not just pro vs anti, not just woo vs science, not just tin foil hats vs Big Pharma conspiracies. Maybe, sometimes, they have a point. Or maybe they are reactionary douchebags. Maybe they are just lonely or disconnected, and maybe we can be friends.

Perhaps now I’m strong enough to find out.

Traci_4210

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alternative-health

What is a “bitter herb”?

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Dandelion leaf, by Greg Hume
Dandelion leaf, by Greg Hume

As an herbalist for whom tastes of herbs -sweet, sour, salty, spicy (pungent), astringent and bland- imply specific medicinal actions. Bitterness is something that is often confusing because there is a genetic component to the ability to taste – according to 21 and Me I belong to a snip where 80% cannot genetically taste bitterness. (I am in the 20% that can.) The most often confused tastes are sour or pungent. I cannot attribute a pungent herb like horseradish or a sour taste like lemon as “bitter”.  Bitter covers tastes like black coffee, radicchio, karela (bitter melon), dandelion greens, black walnut hulls, gentian, angelica or artichoke leaves. There is often a slightly sweet aftertaste to bitterness.

 

Dictionary.com defines bitter (adjective) as:

1.  having a harsh, disagreeably acrid taste, like that of aspirin, quinine, wormwood, or aloes.gentiana_macrophylla_fetissowii

2. producing one of the four basic taste sensations; not sour, sweet, or salt.

3. hard to bear; grievous; distressful: a bitter sorrow.
4. causing pain; piercing; stinging: a bitter chill.
5. characterized by intense antagonism or hostility:  bitter hatred.
6. hard to admit or accept:  a bitter lesson.
7. resentful or cynical: bitter words.
In herbal medicine the largest category of herbs tends to be bitters, which are  anti-infective, anti-inflammatory, digestive causing bile to flow and often antiparasite.  Herbalist David Winston categorizes bitter herbs as cooling bitters, warming bitters and antiparasite aromatic bitters which are intensely bitter.
In Chinese medicine bitter herbs according to Subhuti Dharmananda, in his article Taste and Action of Chinese Herbs -Traditional and Modern Viewpoints

There are two basic qualities associated with bitter taste:

  1. According to the five element systematic correspondence, the bitter taste is associated with the heart system.  The alkaloids and glycosides commonly found in bitter plants help explain this relationship, as the Chinese heart system corresponds mainly to the nervous system and circulatory system of Western medicine, the two systems most strongly impacted by these types of active constituents.
  2. According to the taste/action dogma, bitter herbs have a cleansing action (removing heat and toxin).  The cleansing action of bitters mainly refers to their antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effects, which are found with alkaloids, glycosides, and flavonoids.  The bitter herbs also dry dampness, and this refers mainly to reduction of mucous membrane secretions; we can recognize today that increased mucus secretion is usually secondary to inflammation and infection.

Meals should start or finish with something bitter, be it a salad with bitter greens or an aperitif or digestif drink or an espresso after eating. Fernet Branca and Angostura Bitters are two commercial bitters, but I love Urban Moonshine’s Maple Bitters which come in a handy purse spray. Or you can take a slice of lime in water and bite down on the skin. This will stimulate your bile and stomach acid production. (So-called “acid reflux” in people over 30 is usually a problem of stomach acid being too low to stimulate the closure of the esophageal sphincter.) When the bitter taste stimulates peristalsis it helps relieve constipation and even depression. It helps create the optimum conditions for the gut bacteria as well.
 

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Attorney General Enshrines Bad Herbal Product Test with GNC

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supplementsRecently the press was transfixed when NY State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office announced that the vast majority of herbal supplements tested by the AG’s office had none of the herbs claimed. This followed a Canadian Guelph University study from the developers of a novel DNA testing process that claimed a huge percent of herbs tested were bogus.  That study was so poorly done that the American Botanical Council asked for it to be retracted.  Their title said it all:

Science Group Says Article on DNA Barcode Analysis of Herbs Is Flawed, Contains Errors, Creates Confusion, and Should Be Retracted:  Methodological Flaws, Statistical Inconsistencies, Taxonomic Confusion, and Unreliable Conclusions Require Paper in BMC Medicine to be Corrected, Revised, and Re-peer-reviewed

Nonetheless the specter of a relatively inexpensive new test in an industry everyone assumes is unregulated was irresistible to the AGs office (and besides everyone knows DNA is scientific!)  This new DNA barcode test is different from forensic DNA tests which is what people think of when they hear “DNA test.”  Now GNC has signed a premature consent agreement and the AG’s offices in 14 states are planning to follow suit based on technically misleading testing.

As a clinical herbalist for over 25 years and a professor of herbal medicine I need to point out that the press has given a free ride to the validity of new DNA barcode testing which purported to show that 79% of herbs from Target, GNC, Walgreens and Wallmart were adulterated or missing the herb claimed. The high figure should have given the AG’s office pause.  Verification including microscopy and validated chemical test methods, like those found in official pharmacopeias for these seven herbs, should have been conducted to confirm the DNA findings.

When the initial 2013 Canadian DNA barcode study came out it was clear that it was oriented to the sales of a testing method and had poor application to prepared herbs. DNA barcoding is less expensive than traditional herbal tests and that of course would be a great new market for the test developers. Raw herbs before extraction can be identified by DNA. It has proven itself with foods where whole plant products are being tested. But the test only tests the presence of DNA. Unless I am growing herbs, the least useful compound is DNA:  instead I want to extract the medicinal secondary metabolites, the minerals, polysaccharides, polyphenols, sesqueterpenes and flavonoids.

A typical Chinese formula has 7-9 grams per herb and 5-9 herbs, so say has 50 grams of herbs daily. You would need at least 20 large 400 mg pills- too much, which is why herbs are extracted to find their most medicinally useful components. DNA isn’t one of those and it is usually degraded by extraction. However there is a need to add something like rice flour to keep the powdered extracts from clumping and that doesn’t need to be extracted, so its DNA is present. The DNA barcode test doesn’t test concentration so it looks like the herbal capsule is free of the herb and adulterated when, in fact, it is properly made.

Now encapsulated herbs are perhaps the least effective form since you can’t taste them. (Taste and smell are not merely aesthetic experiences- they engage body feedback systems.) Powders can oxidize rapidly. I wouldn’t buy my herbs from Target, Walmart, Walgreens or GNC.  I want higher quality. But it begs credibility that 79% of products were free of the herbs claimed. You can visit wholesale herb markets to see the tonnage of herbs at reasonable prices. GNC is in the business of selling herbs and they need to have a certain level of quality (if only because people like me will bite into the capsules and can taste whether the herb is present.)

So it was not accurate to say that 79% of supplements lacked the herbs claimed, instead 79% did not have DNA present.  It might have other medicinally useful constituents from the herb in question, and in fact subsequent industry-standard testing found herbs in all samples. It was not accurate to assume there was substantial adulteration, only that excipients were usually used. Some 90% of herbs are sold in extract form, unlike the foods that work with DNA barcoding.

There is a need for quality control, especially in the bodybuilding and weight-lifting sectors of the industry where ConsumerLab has identified real problems. I do use suppliers of international herbs who use HPLC and heavy metal testing, but I also purchase whole herbs directly from US growers I know, where I can taste and smell the herbs and make my own extracts.  The American Botanical Council has been in the forefront of protecting against adulteration, intentional or accidental. The ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program, is being conducted by ABC with the nonprofit American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP) and the NCNPR, a FDA Center of Excellence lab at the University of Mississippi.

GNC couldn’t afford a shadow over their business so signed the consent requirement. They will have ample evidence they used the herbs claimed but are likely to miss the DNA barcoding target unless they add powdered herb to the excipient. But the spotlight will be off by then.  By all means make major retailers stand behind their herbs, but do not enshrine a novel DNA test just because it is cheap.

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alternative-health

Are Herbal Supplements Safe?

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The New York Times had an article this week, Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem, that suggested that herbal capsules may not contain what they say, often containing different species in the family or fillers.  The study cited is found here.

The study has major problems and the American Botanical Association has called upon the BMC medicine journal to retract the paper:

In our view, and in the opinion of expert reviewers of this critique, and with all due respect to the authors and BMC Medicine, the journal should retract this paper, and require that the authors address various errors, ambiguities, and areas of confusion by appropriately rewriting, correcting, and resubmiting it to the journal. The editors of the journal should then submit the corrected revision to an appropriate peer-review process that employs numerous expert reviewers (not just the two who presumably reviewed the initial paper) who are knowledgeable not only in the fields of DNA testing, but also in botanical analytics and related disciplines. Only then, if the paper passes such appropriately expanded peer review, should the paper be republished. Until then, despite the good intentions of its authors, this paper creates confusion, promotes false conclusions, and, unfortunately, may constitute a disservice to scientific researchers and other responsible members of the botanical products community.

Herbalism
Herbalism (Photo credit: Nomadic Lass)

The DNA barcode study looked at extracts as if they were herbs.  Herbal extracts do not contain complete DNA from the plants, but instead concentrate constituents from the plants.  You need fewer capsules of extract than of powdered herb which is why most capsules contain  extracts or extracts spray dried onto carriers.  The extracts usually require a solid base which can range from the herbal marc, to rice to alfalfa, or they will clump and not break down well in the body.  But in the study the extracts were seen as missing herbs and the excipients and fillers were seen as adulterants.

While it was not possible to tell the difference between slight contamination- a few dandelion leaves in a hectare of herbs or wholesale substitution of amaryllis family for cinnamon, we know there is some adulteration  in the herbs supply, just not most of it as the study implies. In an era where most herbal products are subject to intense Good Manufacturing Practice (GMO) and third party verification there is less adulteration than one might think.

Still, I almost never suggest using encapsulated herbs, for reasons of identification and freshness, as well as because taste is an important signal to the body that the herbs are coming and to start secreting digestive juices to use them.  Besides, herbs you taste can get into the lymphatic system in your tongue and throat, instead of waiting in your stomach for the gel cap to dissolve.  But I had several reactions to the article:

  • We have adulterated olive oil, e-coli in meat, melamine in pet food, banned pesticides in our fruit,  counterfeit or badly studied pharmaceuticals and bottled tap water sold as “fresh from the spring”.  In all cases, including herbs, the regulations are strong but the FDA is pitiful at enforcing them.  Frankly I prefer that they focus on hamburger and chicken since it causes more health problems.  Misidentified herbs, which I abhor, have not killed anyone. But we have nowhere enough inspections for an internationally sourced food and medicine supply.
  • The herbs you purchase from your acupuncturist, herbalist or naturopath are not likely to be a problem.  I prefer to use fresh herbs which I was trained to inspect, purchased directly from growers I have met in the US or firms which use liquid chromatography and a variety of other means to test for species, heavy metal contamination or other problems. I use five exceptional tincture companies or make tinctures myself.  Serious herbalists, many of whom I know started companies to help heal people. The granules I use are from Taiwanese firms with pharmaceutical-grade manufacturing, certified GMP (good manufacturing practice compliant) and have third party inspection certificates.  When I do use teapills or capsules I purchase from firms that I know to be careful, from a Chinese medicine pharmacy that inspects sources or from high quality US firms.
  • Be careful where you get your herbs if you buy them yourself.  I don’t purchase herbs from my local CVS or even GMC. We have a high quality independent health store where the proprietor is careful to select brands with good quality standards.  You can grow your own herbs for teas or tinctures. There are quality mail-order herbs.  Ask questions. Join Consumerlab and purchase the supplements that have passed their tests for species, potency and heavy metals. Ask for GMC compliance and third party verification.
  • It appears that the test in the article was to promote a new DNA bar code scanning technology to be a standard, although it can identify herbs, but  not when they are processed or in formulas and which can neither account for potency or heavy metal contamination.  (See the Consumerlab founder’s letter at the bottom of the NY Times article.)  While this does not excuse the mislabeled herbs, the actual percentage is likely under the  amount identified in their study.

    Herbal supplements
    Herbal supplements (Photo credit: Ano Lobb. @healthyrx)

  • Some species are similar to others and have similar properties, others not.  In Chinese medicine a pharmaceutical name like niu xi may refer to several functionally similar species although they really ought to be identified. by Latin binomial species name.  The black cohosh (Actea racemosa) cited in another study had Actea asiatica substituted, but that plant is used in Chinese medicine and really is not a serious risk for toxicity at normal doses.  It is used differently though.  Echinacea species usually have similar properties.
  • Most capsules are made with herbal extracts where constituents from plants are extracted but the DNA is not present.  This would show up with the barcoding as missing the herb when in fact it is the basis of the extract.
  • Keep it in perspective.  Hundreds of thousands of people each year die from properly-identified pharmaceuticals while you need to go back several years to find any deaths from herbs, properly identified or not.

The study does not name manufacturers by name,  which would have been helpful.  Here are some herb companies I deal with which I consider safe and accurate:   Herbalist & Alchemist, HerbPharm, Cedar Bear Naturals, Mountain Rose Herbs, Zach Woods Herb Farm, Healing Spirit Herb Farm, Blessed Maine Herbs , Wise Women Herbals, Mushroom Harvest, Plum Flower, Lotus Herbs, Gaia, Spring Wind Herbs, KAN, KPC, Kamwo Herbs, New Chapter, Starwest, Frontier, Pacific, and there are many, many more.

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Addenda:  The American Botanical Council has called for a recall of the study because of its serious failures.  Here are a few extracts from its critique:

” The approach taken by the authors was to create a number of homemade definitions and then evaluate materials against those definitions using DNA fingerprinting. …There are internationally recognized definitions for identity, authenticity, contamination, and substitution. Invention of new definitions for these terms by the authors in order to demonstrate the novelty of their approach and their technical virtuosity is self-referential and, unfortunately, very possibly self-serving. Their apparent lack of adequate knowledge in this field has allowed them to create a virtual problem and then, figuratively, ride to the rescue and solve it.”

Despite the authors’ contention to the contrary, there is no evidence that DNA can be obtained from botanical extracts, and DNA from relatively highly processed materials such as finished supplements in tablets and capsules is of poor quality. As a result, the DNA that is detected in these cases is typically either accidental environmental contamination, cross-contamination among samples in the lab, and/or the DNA from the product’s carrier or filler (soy, potato, or rice).

… In the same PCR reaction mix, a shorter fragment (e.g., from the adulterant) is preferably amplified over a larger fragment, which also could be misinterpreted to mean that the sample has more adulterant material than authentic material…We thus are at a loss to know whether or not non-target DNA found in a product is present at levels that would constitute a significant amount of extraneous material or perhaps a few dandelion (Taraxacum officinale, Asteraceae) leaves commingled with a hectare’s worth of harvested crop.

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