Botanicals

There has been growing recognition of the role of tradition and the need to define the important issues to consider in the development of a regulatory framework for food supplements containing botanicals. This paper is based on the reflections of the participants in the Expert Roundtables on Botanicals held in London in 2018 and Istanbul in 2019. It has been developed particularly for the use of governments who are considering reviewing or developing a new framework for the use of botanicals in supplements. While it does not claim to be exhaustive, it outlines important elements identified by Roundtable participants.

While the vital importance of micronutrients to health promotion is universally accepted, there has been less attention on other bioactive dietary components, particularly those derived from botanicals. In this report, Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg addresses the potential role that such botanicals could play in nutrition and health. Dr. Blumberg is a Professor in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and also serves as a Senior Scientist in the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. His research is focused on the biochemical basis for the role of antioxidant nutrients and their dietary requirements in promoting health and preventing disease during the aging process via changes in status of oxidative stress, glucoregulation, and inflammation. He has published more than 300 scientific articles and serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals.

The IADSA Decision Tree is an aid to determine the extent of data required for the safety evaluation of botanicals used in supplements taking into account the positions of governments and scientific bodies and the available literature.