Earlier this week, AHPA announced a trade requirement, to take effect January 13, 2012, to require its members to not label DMAA as geranium oil or as any part of the geranium plant, whether by the common name of geranium or by the botanical name of any plant known as geranium (Pelargonium spp.).
The new requirement does not prevent members from labelling of any compound “that is in fact derived from geranium plant materials by that compound's common or usual name”, said AHPA.
"AHPA's new policy is limited only to labeling of products that contain DMAA as an ingredient," explained Michael McGuffin, AHPA's president.
"Some news reports have indicated, or appear to indicate, that AHPA has reached the conclusion that DMAA cannot be found in geranium oil. AHPA has reached no such conclusion."
Now you see it, now you don’t; now you see it…
According to a single analysis by Chinese researchers reportedly using gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS) techniques and published in the Journal of Guizhou Institute of Technology (1996, Vol. 25, pp. 82-85), DMAA is a constituent of geranium oil, but no other analysis has reported its presence.
However, AHPA has said that it has received new information from two sources - an analytical chemist and an AHPA member – that they have initiated new research on the chemistry of geranium. “Both have reported that their preliminary results indicate the presence of DMAA, and some effort to validate these results is now planned,” said AHPA.
No further details about these preliminary findings have been released.
To read our earlier report on this issue, please click here.