Quality and safety are two interconnected but different issues. You can have a great herbal formula, made of the best components and completely free of contaminants; if it is inappropriate for your condition or your constitution, it is still not safe. Here are some tips for finding quality products, and information on some safety issues you may not have considered.

Let’s start with a look at the label. The ingredients list should be very specific. Look for details like these:

• For herbs, the specific species and part of the plant used should be listed. For example the term “Valerian Extract” does not tell you much, but if it also says “Valeriana officinalis (root)” then you’ve got a good idea of what you’re buying. If you get the wrong species or wrong part of the plant, you’re just buying the waste products that better manufacturers wouldn’t touch.

• For supplements, the specific chemical compound should be listed - such as ascorbyl palmitate (Vitamin C) or d-alpha tocopherol succinate (Vitamin E). Not all forms of a nutrient are equally effective. An important issue is bioavailability - how well that nutrient can be absorbed and used by the body.
• The amount of each ingredient should be listed separately. A “proprietary blend” of several ingredients means you have no idea if you are buying 1 mg or 500 mg of any particular ingredient. Chances are, you’re mostly getting the cheapest items in the list.
• Anything manufactured outside of the U.S. should be GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) certified.
• Any fillers and/or preservatives should be listed. Better yet would be a statement that no preservatives and/or fillers have been used. This can be very important if you have allergies to corn, gluten, etc. It is possible to buy supplements without any fillers or coatings, binders, shellacs, artificial colors, fragrance, excipients, wheat, yeast, gluten, corn, sugar, starch, preservatives or hydrogentated oil.
• If you are a strict vegan, make sure any capsules used are not from animal sources such as gelatin.

You should also be able to get some information on quality testing - perhaps on the manufacturer’s web site. The best manufacturers test every lot of their finished products (preferably using independent assays). A big problem with supplements, including herbs, is that the finished products simply don’t contain the amounts and proportions of ingredients that they should.

For Chinese herbs, the new Chinese Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) standard is pretty good. The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) certification is considered one of the most stringent in the world: their guidelines for dietary and herbal supplements are the same as for their pharmaceuticals.

Many of the scare stories in the press are about heavy metals and/or pharmaceuticals being found in herbal supplements. Some heavy metals are picked up from the soil, and some were purposely used in traditional formulas. In China, combining herbs and pharmaceuticals is not necessarily illegal, but those products should certainly not be entering the U.S. as dietary supplements. Sticking with a top quality manufacturer will let you rest easy about these issues.

Note that GMP certification relates to manufacturing standards rather than ingredients. With herbs, proper identification of raw materials is critical. Testing of plant constituents is important, as these vary depending where and how the plants are grown, harvested, etc. Good companies use chemical analyses including TLC (thin layer chromatography) and HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) to confirm identification, ensure potency and test for levels of active constituents.