This post series on botanical ingredient adulteration is inspired by the excellent work coming out of the Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) by the American Botanical Council (ABC), continuing today with:
🌿 Ashwagandha: one of the most important herbs in Ayurveda and a fast-growing supplement ingredient that has become vulnerable to economic adulteration when undeclared leaves, stems, or other aerial parts are sold as root or root extract.
Ashwagandha is traditionally used as a rejuvenating Ayurvedic herb and tonic, with both the roots and leaves described with traditional uses in Ayurvedic texts. Much of the current market is supplied as dry extract, typically standardized to withanolides, which creates added incentive for misuse of *undisclosed* lower-cost aerial parts. There is an important distinction being made here that sometimes leaves are intentionally included and disclosed; thus, not considered adulterants.
For companies, confirming identity is not optional; it’s a legal and ethical duty under cGMPs to verify that each incoming botanical is the right species, the right plant part, and meets agreed quality specs. Brands and manufacturers should be leaning on resources like the BAPP adulteration bulletins and implementing fit-for-purpose analytical methods, rather than relying on nonspecific tests that can miss plant-part adulteration.
Adulteration, in the regulatory sense, means a product is unsafe or of inferior quality because it fails to meet legal standards for purity, strength, or composition (including contamination).
What is highlighted in these posts are economic adulteration: intentional substitution, dilution, or undeclared additions that misrepresent a botanical’s true identity or quality compared to what the label and consumer would reasonably expect.
For more detailed information on adulterants in botanicals, see the BAPP publications, which are freely available on their website. To see the full carousel, go to this LinkedIn post:
Ashwagandha Common Adulterants-
