American Botanical Council: Exploring and preventing safety risks in herbal supplements
22 Aug 2024 | American Botanical Council
We sit down with Stefan Gafner, Ph.D., chief science officer at the American Botanical Council, to discuss companies’ and consumers’ safe and responsible use of botanical supplements and herbal medicines. Although he tells us that the risks associated with such products are low, they are not zero. More serious adverse events include liver toxicity and potential issues in more vulnerable subpopulations. Gafner explains that the botanical industry aims to minimize these risks by examining data on an ingredient’s history of safe use and performing additional testing if there are indications of potential safety issues or if limited data is available.
