There is no strict regulation related to herbal products and retail corporations like GNC, Walgreens, and Walmart. They are taking advantage of this situation by selling herbal supplements that don’t include the ingredients stated on their labels.
The NY State attorney general’s office started to research and thorough investigation focused on supplements sold in the following retailers – Walmart, Target, GNC, and Walgreens.
The results of the investigation were shocking. These popular retail stores offer dietary herbal supplements that don’t include the herbs listed on the labels. What is even worse is that the majority of these supplements come with latent allergens that can’t be found on the label.
Obviously, these retailers have received letters in which they were urged to pull all the misleading products from their shelves.
The letters that were revealed in the New York Times included a part in which the retailers are warned that modification, contamination, and incorrectly labeling of their herbal supplements are viewed as a deceptive business practice and what is more important, this practice presents a significant health risk for customers.
The following is an explanation of some of the findings that come as a result of the aforementioned investigation:
Spring Valley Brand – Products Offered by Walmart:
Saw Palmetto
- Certain products had only small quantities of saw palmetto
- Both rice and garlic were part of this product
Echinacea
- There were no traces of Echinacea or any plant material in the supplement
Gingko Biloba
- There was no presence of Ginkgo Biloba in the supplement
- On the other hand, the produced had dracaena, rice, radish, wheat, and mustard
Ginseng
- There was no ginseng present in this product
- However, the supplement included citrus, dracaena, pine, rice, and wheatgrass.
Garlic
- Only one sample had small quantities of garlic
- The supplement had wheat, dracaena, pine, rice, and palm.
St. John’s Wort
- There are no traces of St. John’s Wort
- The supplement included rice, garlic, and cassava.
Finest Nutrition Brand, Products Offered by Walgreens:
Saw Palmetto
- The supplement included saw palmetto
Echinacea
- There were no traces of Echinacea
- On the other hand, there were rice, garlic, and daisy in this product.
Gingko Biloba
- There was no Gingko Biloba present in this supplement
- Instead, the investigation found rice.
Ginseng
- Ginseng was not present in this product
- They have found rice and garlic
Garlic
- No garlic found
- Traces of dracaena, rice, palm, and wheat detected
St. John’s Wort
- No traces of St. John’s Wort in this product
- The investigators found rice, garlic, and dracaena
Herbal Plus Brand, Products Offered by GNC:
Saw Palmetto
- Only one sample had palmetto in it.
- Most of the samples included different ingredients like asparagus, rice, and primrose.
Echinacea
- There was no presence of Echinacea detected
- On the other hand, they’ve found rice in some of the samples.
Gingko Biloba
- The investigation didn’t find any Gingko Biloba
- They have found spruce, garlic, asparagus, and rice.
Ginseng
- No ginseng found among samples
- Did detect dracaena, rice, citrus, wheatgrass, and pine.
Garlic
- The product contained garlic.
St. John’s Wort
- There was no presence of St. John’s Wort
- The product contained rice, garlic, and dracaena.
Up & Up Brand, Products Offered by Target
Saw Palmetto
- The majority of tests have shown a clear presence of saw palmetto
- Some of these tests have shown that there is no plant DNA.
Echinacea
- The majority of tests (even though not all of them) confirmed the presence of Echinacea
- Only one test has shown the presence of rice.
Gingko Biloba
- There were no traces of Gingko Biloba in the product.
- The test detected rice, garlic, and French bean.
Valerian Root
- Valerian Root was not present in the product
- The investigation found rice, peas, asparagus, saw palmetto, bean, allium, and wild carrot.
Garlic
- The product included garlic
- One of the tests found that the product doesn’t include plant DNA.
St. John’s Wort
- There were no traces of St. John’s Wort
- On the other hand, the product contained rice, garlic, and dracaena.
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