Whether it’s St. John’s wort, Echinace, or other herbal supplements (such as valerian, Ginkgo biloba, Garcinia cambogia, or bilberry), here are a few key points to remember to help you choose the best herbal supplements based on ConsumerLab.com’s extensive testing. Use the pass above to see some of ConsumerLab.com’s full reports.

Beware of Junk Herbs
If you were to brew a cup of coffee, would you try to pass off the left over coffee grinds as “coffee” to someone else? Of course not, but some unscrupulous supplement manufacturers do this. They purchase the material leftover after the key phytochemicals (plant compounds) have already been removed and sold as high quality extract. To this leftover material, they typically add a synthetic compound similar to one that naturally occurs in the plant in order to fool simple chemical tests, but you are not going to get the full spectrum of compounds you want. This is called “economic adulteration” and it’s not uncommon.

The only way to avoid supplements that have been adulterated this way is to chemically analyze them, as ConsumerLab.com has been doing for 15 years in its product reviews. However, you can also try to protect yourself by knowing what compounds, and in what percentages, the herb is typically standardized, and looking for this in the Supplement Facts panel on the label. While you are checking the Supplement Facts panel, there are three other important things to look for:

The scientific name of the herb – It’s important that you know the full name of the herb you want. This will appear in italicized letters and is usually two words, which includes the species. Labels are required to be specific to help ensure that you don’t get the wrong herb.

The part of the herb – The compounds found in the root may be very different from what’s in the leaves or other parts of the herb. Be sure you know which part you want. Be aware that the above-ground parts of the plant may be referred to as the “aerial” portions, while the root may be called the “rhizome.”

The amount of herb – While suggested serving sizes on labels typically reflect what has been used in clinical trials, this is not always the case. We’ve come across products that suggest a dose 10 times smaller than what’s been shown to work, or a dose that much larger than you need or want. Also beware of herbs containing “proprietary blends” as the actual amount of the herb will typically not be listed. Don’t rely solely on the manufacturer to determine what you need – find out ahead of time what dose you should use. You can find this in our reports. 

Look Out for Unwanted Fillers
Often much of what’s in an herbal supplement is not the herb, but fillers, binders and flow agents. This can include soy, wheat and lactose. While typically not dangerous, you may want to avoid certain ingredients due to allergies, sensitivities or personal preferences. Again, be sure to read the label carefully, this time looking at the bottom of the Supplement Facts panel where “Other ingredients” are listed. In ConsumerLab.com’s reports, you’ll find all the ingredients listed for every tested product so you can check for unwanted ingredients before you buy.

Heavy Metal Contamination 

While growing, herbs absorb particular metals from the environment. The more contaminated the environment, the more the plant may take in. For example, if a plant is grown in a field near a highway, there still may be lead in the ground from the time when leaded gasoline was used. Over the past 15 years, our tests at ConsumerLab.com have found high levels of lead in many herbal products, from turmeric to valerian. Recently, we even found high levels of cadmium in cocoa powders.

Unfortunately, nothing on the label will tell you how contaminated or clean a product is, although extracts are typically much cleaner than whole herb powders because the extraction process also helps rid the ingredient of metals. The FDA requires manufacturers to test their products for heavy metals, but has not established limits and allows each manufacturer determine its own reasonable limits. ConsumerLab.com’s reports will show you which herbal products are contaminated and which are not, based on standards often much stricter than those used by the industry.

Finding Quality:
As mentioned, there is a lot to check before you purchase and swallow an herbal supplement and, unfortunately, you can’t tell from looking at a product if it is high-quality or not. However, you can check ConsumerLab.com’s reports to find those which have passed rigorous testing, including tests for key ingredients and heavy metal contamination. Tests in recent years by ConsumerLab.com have found that more than 30% of herbal supplements don’t meet strict criteria for quality. Among products which pass testing, ConsumerLab.com has found that certain products are much more reasonably priced than others, which means that you can also find the best herbal supplements at the lowest cost.