Comment · Sat, September 14, 2013 · Ceretropic
Purchased some bulk bacopa extract with .86 ppm of lead... safe?
Original post in this thread
arbolesdefantasia · 11 points
Just received COA of some bacopa extract I purchased. Here is a link to a study evaluating the acceptable levels of heavy metals in dietary supplements. depending on whose standard you go by .86ppm of lead is either above or below. erring on the side of caution i am probably going to return the product. opinions. should i keep it and ingest or no?
http://www.imjournal.com/resources/web_pdfs/0607_liva.pdf
edit: i have been taking a different brand of bacopa for a few months. and purchased this in bulk to save money, i havent started taking it yet because i still have some left in the original bottle. i dont have a coa for the brand i am currently taking, thus it could be more or less than the bulk bacopa i purchased.
edit 2: received the COA for gotu kola and its 1.866ppm. ie more than double that of the bacopa.
What they were answering
arbolesdefantasia · 2 points
As a consumer, I would prefer a more accurate detection method adopted. See below for the relevant excerpt from the article I linked to in my post:
> The goal of all of my articles on quality assurance is to
impress upon you the urgent need to obtain valid evidence of a
product’s identity (authenticity), potency, and purity (maximum freedom from contamination).
1. USP Method #231, Heavy Metals as Lead: This method is
very commonly used, but it is seriously outdated as a limit
test for determining total heavy metal burden. It has two
serious drawbacks: First, it groups all heavy metals together
and expresses the result as "lead" because it is compared to
a lead standard. Therefore, this methodology does not differentiate one heavy metal from another. Second, its LOD is
5–10 ppm, some 1,000 times too high to be of value. If a
manufacturer gives you a test result using USP Method
#231, do not accept the information and ask for a more sensitive test.
2. ICP-OES (Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission
Spectrometry): This is a better test because it can screen
for multiple elements simultaneously at trace levels. But it
is still not good enough—the methodology suffers from
interferences that can demonstrate positively or negatively
on the analysis results. In addition, ICP-OES LOD for heavy
metals can range from 10–100 ppb, depending on the sample and element being analy…
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
I completely agree. We need more stringent testing methods and purity levels than we have traditionally gotten. I know Nootropics Depot is in the process of setting up their own testing lab. They are definitely working towards the same goal.