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:
➡️ Ginseng (Panax ginseng, Panax quinquefolius, and Panax notoginseng).
In the United States, the term “ginseng” for a dietary ingredient or dietary supplement is legally limited to botanicals derived from the genus Panax, but that restriction does not necessarily apply in other parts of the world, where non-Panax species may still be marketed using “ginseng” in the common name. That makes ginseng a useful example of how adulteration and market confusion can begin with nomenclature, long before any laboratory test is run.
The Ginsengs are among the most popular herbs on the market and popular for their adaptogenic properties, including effects on stress resilience, immune support, and metabolic balance.
🔺 Ginseng is vulnerable to adulteration due to both economic and accidental reasons. They are staples in North American and Asian trade incorporated into TCM-style formulas, herbal teas, standardized extracts, and mainstream dietary supplements, each with different characteristics.
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. To see this full downloadable PDF, visit the LinkedIn post: