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:
➡️ Cordyceps is the common name often used in trade for a group of medicinal fungi, but the historically prized form is wild Ophiocordyceps sinensis, the caterpillar-fungus complex known in Tibetan and Chinese traditions. In traditional use, it has been valued for supporting the lungs and kidneys, promoting vitality and stamina, and addressing conditions such as weakness, chronic cough, and lower-back or knee discomfort, while modern marketing often emphasizes energy, sexual vitality, and anti-aging benefits.
On the market, people may encounter cordyceps in several very different forms, and those differences matter. The BAPP bulletin stresses that products sold simply as “cordyceps” may actually contain different species and different fungal parts, so labels should accurately distinguish species such as O. sinensis, and C. militaris, and should also specify whether the ingredient is fruiting body, mycelium, or mycelium biomass.
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).
Economic adulteration is emphasized in these posts: 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. Accidental adulteration is also present in some species.
For more detailed information on adulterants in botanicals, see the BAPP publications, which are freely available on their website. Fer the full post, go to LinkedIn: