Analytical strategies to determine the labelling accuracy and economically-motivated adulteration of “natural” dietary supplements: Turmeric case study
Food Chemistry, 15 February 2022, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308814621020136
Authors: Hong You, Haley Gershon, Florencia Goren, Fei Xue, Traci Kantowski, Le nMonheit
We are proud to share this recently published article authored by Hong You, Ph.D., Director of Scientific Affairs, Eurofins, which provides a case study that was performed to test turmeric dietary supplements' "natural claim".
Abstract
Turmeric has faced authenticity issues as instances of economic-adulterations to reduce the cost. We used carbon-14 and HPLC analyses as complementary methods to verify “all-natural” label claims of commercial dietary supplements containing turmeric ingredients. A high percentage of curcumin-to-curcuminoids value was used as an indicator to imply the presence of synthetic curcumin. However, using the HPLC method alone did not provide direct evidence of curcuminoids’ natural origin, whereas using only the carbon-14 method cannot test for potency label claims and determine which constituent(s) contain 14C radiocarbon. By analyzing results from both methods, a significant correlation between the percentage of curcumin-to-curcuminoids and % biobased carbon (Pearson’s r = −0.875, p < 0.001) indicated that synthetic curcumin was greatly attributed to determined synthetic ingredients. Only four out of the 14 samples analyzed supported authentic label claims. This orthogonal testing strategy showed its potential for the quality control of turmeric products.
Read the full article here.
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