If you've ever gone shopping in a drug store or grocery store, and you see these rows of products, and a lot of them have these advertisements, like 100 percent pure or all-natural, and the thing to know about this is that is just advertising. That doesn't necessarily mean that that product contains pure ingredients or is truly all-natural. We have to be aware of the exact same thing when we're shopping for botanicals. Unfortunately, botanicals can be susceptible to things such as contaminants or adulterants, and that's what we'll be discussing in this video. Generally speaking, a contaminant is a substance that's unintentionally present in a product. This is in contrast to an adulterant which is intentionally added to a product to enhance its effectiveness. When discussing botanicals with your patients, you need to be able to explain what they should know about the more common contaminants and adulterants. We'll be discussing common contaminants and adulterants in more detail throughout this lesson. Common contaminants and adulterants in botanicals include heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, misidentified plant parts, microorganisms, and pesticides. The first type of contaminant we'll be discussing are heavy metals. This includes substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, or arsenic. Sometimes these heavy metals can be present in soil where a plant grows, causing the plant to absorb them as it grows. Detectable levels of lead, mercury, and arsenic have been found in botanical products unfortunately. This is more commonly seen in traditional Chinese medicine or Ayurvedic drug preparations, where heavy metals are often added intentionally because it's thought to enhance the effectiveness of the herb. Many people choose botanicals because they see them as a better alternative to pharmaceuticals. Ironically, pharmaceuticals are actually a common contaminant in botanical preparation. Typically, these substances are added intentionally, so they would be best described as an adulterant. Pharmaceuticals are usually added intentionally to increase the products' effectiveness. This is more common in botanical preparations from China or India, as many have been found to have undeclared pharmaceuticals. Misidentified plant parts can be either contaminants or adulterants. Sometimes the plant species is accidentally misidentified when harvesting or assumed that similar sounding plants are the same. Even if the correct plant species is identified, there is the potential to contaminate the product with different parts of the plant. For example, a plant that's usually harvested for its roots, it's contaminated with small pieces of leaves or stem. It should be noted that sometimes this is done intentionally however. It's a lot more labor intensive and expensive, for example, to harvest roots of any plant. So, sometimes a different part of the plant is harvested as a substitute to cut costs. Microorganisms found on plants are ubiquitous, and include substances like mold or bacteria. This occurs not only during the growing and harvesting of the plant, but also how it's handled during packaging and processing. In most cases, they are not high enough levels to be a safety concern or cause health concerns. However, in rare cases, botanical preparations can be contaminated with more dangerous bacteria like E.coli or salmonella. Both of these bacteria can cause serious health concerns, and even potentially be fatal. The United States Pharmacopoeia has defined microbial limits for botanicals that are loosely based on European Pharmacopoeia standards. Farmers use pesticides to help prevent damage to crops from insects or other pests. However, these pesticides may be transmitted during the manufacturing processes as well. The United States Pharmacopoeia and the National Sanitation Foundation have tried to help combat this problem by establishing standards for pesticide use in botanical products. Let's see if you can identify the contamination concerns. When discussing botanicals with patients, it's really important that you advise about contaminants and adulterants that are potentially present in the supplement. It's also important for you to be able to provide them with tips, for what to look for when purchasing botanicals to increase their chances of buying an uncontaminated product, which we will discuss in another lesson this week. Learn more about contaminants and adulterants by reading "A Closer Look at Contaminants and Adulterants", as it goes into more in-depth about concerns surrounding contaminants in advertising claims. Remember, safety with botanicals is not just limited to being aware of risks associated with contaminants. The next lesson discusses herb-drug interactions.
