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Member Advisory 

ABC Responds to Error on Supplement Regulation in Reuters Article

(AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 14, 2013) On Aug. 2, 2013, ABC Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal sent the following letter to Reuters. ABC chose not to share this letter publicly until now in order to give Reuters ample time to publish or contact ABC for further information if they wished; thus far the news agency has not responded to any of ABC's communications, other than an auto-response when the letter was sent to them.

Re: Doyle, Kathryn. Ginseng supplements linked to less cancer fatigue. Reuters. 11:00 a.m. EDT, July 24, 2013

Dear Kathryn Doyle and/or Reuters Editor:

We are writing to you to request that you please revise and correct your story cited above and appended below with respect to your erroneous statement that ginseng dietary supplements and other dietary supplements are not regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration (“Dietary supplements such as ginseng are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”). This is not the case.

Ginseng and all dietary supplements are regulated by the FDA. In fact, in the past several years the FDA has stepped up its enforcement of various regulations regarding the manufacture of herbs and other dietary supplements (according to the FDA’s Good Manufacturing Practices), label and marketing claims made for dietary supplements, and numerous other areas where FDA has authority to regulate this increasingly popular class of consumer goods.

In 2012 we published an extensive peer-reviewed article on the subject of regulation of dietary supplements in HerbalGram, our peer-reviewed journal:

Soller RW, Bayne HJ, Shaheen C. The Regulated Dietary Supplement Industry: Myths of an Unregulated Industry Dispelled. HerbalGram 2012. 93:42-57. http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue93/FEAT_myth.html.

In addition, for your possible interest, here is a link to my Dear Reader column in the same issue of HerbalGram which contains some additional perspective: http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue93/DEARREADER.html.

ABC is an independent, tax-exempt, nonprofit research and education organization in Austin, Texas, founded in 1988. ABC’s mission is to increase the quantity and quality of information on the responsible uses and benefits of herbs, medicinal plants, phytomedicines, teas, essential oils, other beneficial plant materials, and fungi. ABC membership consists of researchers, health professionals, consumers, industry members, and many more in 81 countries. More about ABC is available on our website at http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/PageServer.

We thank you in advance for your time and attention in attending to this matter.

Respectfully,

Mark Blumenthal
Founder & Executive Director
American Botanical Council
Editor-in-Chief, HerbalGram & HerbClip
Austin, Texas