FDA issues ginseng warning
Jersey and issued a national warning.
The government body asked the district court for New Jersey to issue a seizure warrant that had been imported and held for sale by FCC Products, a company based in Livingston, N.J.
Although the FDA acknowledged that the exact amount and scope of distribution was "probably small in scope", but nevertheless issued a nationwide warning to supplement manufacturers who may have used this product.
The body explained that the bulk and blended ginseng products held at FCC Products were adulterated under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act because they contain pesticide chemical residues that are unsafe.
"The pesticide chemical residues, procymidone and quintozene, are deemed unsafe because there has been no tolerance established for residues of procymidone and quintozene in ginseng," said the FDA.
The chemicals were found during an inspection of the company, which uses the ginseng to blend into supplements. Ginseng is lauded for its apparent energy boosting properties.
A report this summer by the Freedonia group forecast that world demand for nutraceutical chemicals will advance by 6.1 percent annually to reach $9.6 billion in 2008, serving a $173 billion nutritional products industry. Ginseng was picked out as one of the herbs with the best growth prospects, others included ginkgo biloba for enhanced cognitive properties, saw palmetto for benign prostatic hyperplasia and black cohosh for post-menopausal symptoms.
