Evaluation of alcohol content and metal impurities in liquid dietary supplements by sHSS-GC-FID and GFAAS techniques

Safety Assessment of Herbal Food Supplements: Elemental Profiling and Associated Risk

Increased usage of herbal food supplements by both the paediatric and adult populations prompted a health risk assessment study. The elemental profiles of 52 supplements collected in Serbia were obtained using ICP-MS. The calculated contribution to permitted daily exposure was in compliance with the guidelines for elemental impurities: up to 46.8% for Pb (infants), 67.2% for Cu (toddlers), 6.8% for As (preschool children), and 8.0% for Hg (adolescents). Hazard quotients indicated high exposure of toddlers to Cu (100.9%) and Zn (112.7%), although by only one supplement, for which hazard indices ranged from 229 to 105% (aligning from toddlers to adolescents). Based on the margin of exposure, As and Pb were not of safety concern. Conversely, the proportion of supplements exceeding the acceptable level of lifetime cancer risk due to As exposure varied from 41.9% in adolescents to 54.3% in adults. Simultaneous use of multiple supplements over a prolonged period of time could further deepen health concerns.

Assessment of Physicochemical Parameters and Contaminants in Herbal Dietary Supplements Used in the Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease is a complex disorder characterized by chronic gastrointestinal inflammation. Thus, patients prefer to use herbal dietary supplements containing turmeric, Indian frankincense, green chiretta, and black pepper in an attempt to cope better with their chronic condition. The dietary supplements' dosage forms and herbal ingredients were assessed in terms of the products' physicochemical parameters (weight uniformity, friability, disintegration, rupture test, tablet's breaking force, and powder flowability) in view of the USP-NF requirements. In addition, contaminants such as organic solvents and ethylene oxide were evaluated using gas chromatography. Assessment of gluten via an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay was also performed. Most of the products met USP requirements. The high average weight of one multicomponent tablet sample with a high breaking force value can explain the observed negative results of the disintegration test. A total of 26% of samples tested positive for gluten, but the most alarming fact is that the ethylene oxide levels found in two samples were up to 30 times higher than the EU limit. Accordingly, dietary supplement quality control is of fundamental importance.

Polyphenol content and antioxidant activity of phytoestrogen containing food and dietary supplements: DPPH free radical scavenging activity by HPLC

Soy, red clover, chaste tree, hop and flax have all been found to contain a wide range of phytoestrogenic compounds, and a large number of dietary supplements contain their extracts as principal ingredients. This study is aimed to evaluate the total polyphenolic content and antioxidant activity of phytoestrogen-containing food and formulated dietary supplements. The HPLC-DPPH method was applied for DPPH free radical scavenging activity testing of various phytoestrogen-containing samples. Polyphenol content and antioxidant activity in dietary supplements were higher than in functional food samples; multiple-botanical-source preparations showed higher polyphenol content and antioxidant activity than the mono-botanical counterparts. Furthermore, the correlation between polyphenol content and anti-oxidant activity was strongly statistically significant, so it might be concluded that antioxidant activity is proportional to the content of these secondary metabolites. The most striking batch-to-batch deviations were represented by one chaste berry-based product (RSD 41.3 %) and one red clover derived product (RSD 57.9 %). The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of the phenolic profile and antioxidant properties of phytoestrogen containing food and dietary supplements.

Determination of ethanol in foods and beverages by magnetic stirring-assisted aqueous extraction coupled with GC-FID: A validated method for halal verification

An in-house method, employing magnetic stirring-assisted aqueous extraction combined with gas chromatography-flame ionization detector, for determination of ethanol in different foods and beverages was validated according to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard. Validation parameters, including selectivity, method limits of detection (approx. 0.006 mg/g) and quantification (approx. 0.02 mg/g), linearity (R² of >0.999), trueness (relative biases of <3%), accuracy (recoveries of 96-105%), and precision (relative standard deviations of <5%), were satisfactory. The proposed method was as accurate and precise as and more sensitive than the AOAC method 2016.12, with estimated relative expanded uncertainties of around 8% for all samples. The validated method was successfully applied for determination of ethanol in 108 commercially processed foods and beverages, and it could be used for halal verification. Accordingly, this study provided a reliable method for routine quantitative analysis of ethanol in processed foods and beverages to ensure their halal integrity prior to halal certification.

Health risk assessment for pediatric population associated with ethanol and selected residual solvents in herbal based products

In this study, 48 herbal based products (41 for the pediatric population) were analyzed for the presence of ethanol and residual solvents. Ethanol was not detected in only 12% of the products designed for infants or toddlers aged under 2, and not quantified in only 5 of 14 'alcohol free' products. Actual content was higher than labeled in six out of 11 samples with specified ethanol quantity. WHO proposed requirement for ethanol content in products intended for use in children under the age of 6 (<0.5%) was not met by as many as 26 samples. Furthermore, calculated blood alcohol levels in children exceeded the relevant toxicological levels for nine samples following a single dose, and for one sample in case of accidental poisoning with the entire package. Regarding the residual solvents, acetone, 1-propanol and 1-butanol were not quantified, 2-propanol was found in two samples in low concentrations, whereas methanol intake via one of the samples exceeded the permitted level for children. The obtained results revealed a significant health concern for the pediatric population due to ethanol intake via herbal based products, calling for the establishment of strict guidelines for ethanol content and labeling.