ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterant Prevention Program celebrates 10 years

Photo © Shutterstock.com/Maren Winter

ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterant Prevention Program (BAPP; Austin, TX) is celebrating 10 years of research and educational activities. The program was founded by the American Botanical Council (ABC) in 2011 in partnership with consortium members. Its aim was to provide research and education in the U.S. and international botanical industry, specifically authenticating botanical raw materials, extracts, and essential oils, as well as detecting their adulteration by unscrupulous suppliers. The partnership also includes the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP), the National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR).

As of March 2021, BAPP has published 63 peer-reviewed documents that are available for free on the BAPP homepage on the ABC website. In its 10-year history, BAPP has been supported by over 200 global botanical community and industry entities, including herb companies, trade associations in the United States and internationally, professional research and health practitioner organization, research centers, and others. BAPP has also been recognized twice by leading industry media organizations, including by Nutritional Outlook when BAPP was named Industry Leader in our 2016 Best of the Industry issue. 

In addition to providing members of the herb industry and analytical laboratory community with authoritative technical information and guidance on adulteration, BAPP has also created an industry self-regulatory tool to assist responsible botanical industry companies in removing adulterated ingredients — referred to as “irreparably defective articles” — from the global botanical supply chains with the BAPP Best Practices Contract Language and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Disposal or Destruction of Irreparably Defective Articles. These documents have been submitted for public comment on two occasions and will be published by BAPP in 2021.

“There are numerous ingredient suppliers and manufacturers in the botanical industry that operate their businesses ethically and responsibly, producing reliable and authentic botanical and fungal ingredients and a variety of natural consumer products. We are truly grateful for the financial, scientific, and moral support that BAPP receives from these companies, and many other parties in the global community who recognize the vitally important research and educational role that BAPP plays in the international medicinal plant and botanical industry,” said BAPP founder and ABC founder and executive director Mark Blumenthal, in a press release.

An informal survey of 115 BAPP supporters, including 50 members from the dietary supplement industry, found that nearly half (24) of the industry representatives said they implemented new quality control measures due to BAPP publications. Fifteen of the representatives revised their ingredient specifications, and 18 changed their ingredient suppliers based on information provided by BAPP.

“For me, this is a moment to look back at what BAPP has achieved over the past 10 years,” said Stefan Gafner, PhD, ABC’s chief science officer and BAPP’s technical director, in a press release. “If, as industry feedback suggests, BAPP has indeed helped to bring better quality supplements and other botanical products to the consumer, then I would say it has been successful.”