The scientific evidence of ethnobotany related to health-food plants use, is an urgent request referring to the botanical-based food supplements. The necessity to verify its scientific validity springs from the fact that plants produce thousands of active metabolites, not always quantifiable one by one. From this complex picture, it is clear that we need to define some criteria to be used in th...

This is the third in a series of six articles to discuss the major classes of dietary supplements (vitamins; minerals; amino acids; herbs or botanicals; metabolites, constituents/extracts, or combinations). The major focus is on efficacy of such dietary supplements to enhance exercise or sport performance.

This is the fourth in a series of six articles to discuss the major classes of dietary supplements (vitamins; minerals; amino acids; herbs or botanicals; metabolites, constituents/extracts, or combinations). The major focus is on efficacy of such dietary supplements to enhance exercise or sport performance.

The popularity of herbal products, especially plant food supplements (PFS) and herbal medicine is on the rise in Europe and other parts of the world, with increased use in the general population as well as among specific subgroups encompassing children, women or those suffering from diseases such as cancer. The aim of this paper is to examine the PFS market structures in European Community (EC)...

BACKGROUND Food supplements, and in particular those containing botanicals (plant food supplements, PFS), have in recent decades been of great interest both to consumers and to food/pharmaceutical industries. OBJECTIVES The aim of this paper is to examine replies by Italian consumers to the PlantLIBRA consumers' survey in order to: 1) assess the behaviour of an Italian population with respect...

Although there are inherent and recognized limitations of in vitro screening methodologies to assess conventional drug-drug interactions (DDIs) per industry guidelines and those adopted by independent laboratories, further limitations are being appreciated which are unique to the evaluation of botanical products and potential DDIs in which they may participate. Among the larger issues faced are...

Dietary supplements are regulated in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under authority of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA). An amendment to the FFDCA, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), defines a dietary supplement as a product that is intended to supplement the diet and contains at least one or more of certain dietary ingr...