Warning about risks with herbal dietary supplements

A group of scientists, doctors and consumer advocates is warning of significant quality and safety problems with dietary supplements containing so-called botanicals. This emerges from a letter from the group to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the Federal Ministry of Economics. In it they call for an end to the unregulated situation with plant, algae, fungus or lichen-based ingredients and thus to ensure improved consumer protection.

In the letter, the authors criticize the fact that no official testing is planned before such products enter the market and that toxicological risks are not independently examined. Currently, manufacturers only have to enter their products in a register with the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety before entering the market. There is an urgent need for action, the authors write. The health of consumers is at risk.

Last year, over 30,000 dietary supplements were registered in Germany, Andreas Hensel told the dpa news agency. He is one of the signatories of the letter, president of the Society for Phytotherapy and heads the Institute for Pharmaceutical Biology and Phytochemistry at the University of Münster.