About the NY Attorney General’s Misuse of DNA Technology to Test Herbal Supplements
On Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015, American Botanical Council (ABC) Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal and Chief Science Officer Stefan Gafner, PhD, submitted a letter to the editor of The New York Times in response to a front-page article titled “New York Attorney General Targets Supplements at Major Retailers” written by Times reporter Anahad O’Connor. The writer contacted ABC for a quote on the issue, but he either declined to include it in the final article or it may have been removed during the editing process.
So Blumenthal and Gafner submitted their comments the old fashioned way – in a letter to the editor – in the case, a letter that was never published. Only one letter — from Dennis Stevenson, PhD of the New York Botanical Garden — was published in response to the article, approximately a week after the original story appeared.
The full text of the ABC letter follows:
Feb. 3, 2015
The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018
Sent to: Thomas Feyer (Letters Editor); letters@nytimes.com
Re: Anahad O’Connor. New York Attorney General Targets Supplements at Major Retailers; What’s in Those Supplements? Health: Well Blog. Tuesday, February 3, 2015, p. D5.
Dear Sir: We lead an international consortium of nonprofit organizations, professional research societies, industry trade associations, and others – dedicated to educating the public on the adulteration of botanical ingredients used in consumer health products: The ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program. The New York State Attorney General’s study of herbal supplements is not based on adequate analytical methods, and its actions are thus premature. The use of DNA barcoding technology for testing of the identity of botanical dietary supplements is a useful but limited technology. DNA testing seldom is able to properly identify chemically complex herbal extracts as little or no DNA is extracted in many commercial extraction processes. Basing its actions on only one testing technology in only one laboratory, the New York AG results are preliminary and require further substantiation. Additional testing using microscopic analysis and validated chemical methods should be conducted to confirm the initial results upon which the AG is acting.
Respectfully, Mark Blumenthal
Founder & Executive Director
American Botanical Council
