Comment · Wed, February 4, 2015 · Ceretropic
Fake herbal supplements. How to know?
Original post in this thread
NellucEcon · 34 points
A news article about the prevalence of fake herbal supplements recently made it to the front page of reddit. I couldn't find the original, so here is a similar article:
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/news/20150203/retailers-fake-supplements
My question is, how do we verify the quality of products? Single drug compounds are probably easier to verify for a number of reasons. For example, adrafinil is a yellowish-white powder, tastes like death, produces an unmistakable urine odor, and has substantial subjective effects in responders. Of course this does not rule out cutting agents that might make dosing hard or impurities that could be unhealthy. In addition, this method works only for those drugs so obviously characterized. Compounds without a distinctive flavor or appearance would be difficult to identify. And compounds whose effects are subtle would be difficult to gauge by subjective experience.
All these problems are more severe for herbal supplements because they typically lack distinctive characteristics, particularly when crushed up and placed in a capsule. And most of their effects are subtle. And lab tests for authenticity require DNA testing.…
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
It's not even that clear with Adrafinil. I am running some in-depth analysis right now of various Adrafinil samples, as they all range in color, taste, smell, and more importantly effects. However, they all test the same purity via HPLC and FTIR. Some people report zero effects from one that tests higher in purity, while others get amazing effects from one that is actually .2% lower purity. I have been pouring through papers to try and figure it out. I am leaning toward two synthesis methods leading to varying amounts of diastereoisomers. That is the only thing making sense at the moment. So we are going to be running the samples through LC/MS, NMR, and probably a polarimeter to figure it out. Something strange is going on.
So if I take the Adrafinil conundrum into account, there could be all sorts of differing effects, even from compounds that test the same purity. This is especially true for compounds with one or more chiral center. Then you get into plant extracts, and you are in a whole different world. Where was the plant grown? What were the soil conditions? Do we even know the active ingredients in the plant, and are we testing for their presence in the sample? Those are just things that can range based on ignorance. Then you have to account for outright fraud.
So it's pretty hard to have absolute certainty about any of the things on the market. Everything can be faked. Trust is going to come into play at some point. I seem to trust Life Extension, Doctor's Best, and Jarrow pretty well. Even then, I am always skeptical.