1. Plants That Help Us Heal
Ingredients in botanical dietary supplements are simply plants known to have certain medicinal or therapeutic properties. For example, we now know the fruit of the cranberry plant helps urinary tract health. You'll find many different dietary supplements created specifically for urinary tract heath will contain cranberry. For centuries, before the advent of modern medicine and the proliferation of chemically created drugs, people turned to botanicals for their ailments. While some of these drugs are new chemicals developed in a lab, some of these drugs are based on these same botanical ingredients. For example, the drug Valium is based on the chemical contained in the root of the valerian plant.
2. FDA Makes the Grade
The FDA recently defined what could and could not be labeled as a botanical dietary supplement. The product must be labeled as a dietary supplement and contain dietary ingredients, such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, botanicals or herbs. Its use must be to supplement the diet and be taken by mouth, in either a pill, liquid, capsule or tablet form. Once a product meets these conditions, then it can call itself a dietary supplement.
3. The Consistency Conspiracy
Some companies that manufacture botanical dietary supplements take the time to standardize their products. This is where they subject their products to testing by an independent laboratory so that they know each batch of their products has a set amount of "active" ingredients. These active ingredients may be listed as vitamin or mineral milligrams or micrograms per tablet, or capsule, or they may state the amount of amino acid complex. Some may isolate a certain chemical believed to be responsible for the medicinal effects of a certain herb and state that the product has been "standardized" to contain a set amount of that chemical. You may want to avoid botanical dietary supplements that don't subject themselves to this "standardization."
4. Natural Doesn't Necessarily Mean Safe
Botanical dietary supplements are natural; in some cases they are simply plants dried and placed in a gelatin capsule, so minimal processing takes place as well. Does this make them safe? In a word, no. In fact, tobacco is completely natural and it is responsible for thousands of deaths each year. While most botanical and herbal dietary supplements have a milder effect than some drugs, they can have a strong effect as well, depending on how they are prepared and the dosing. Check with your naturopathic doctor to see the appropriate dosing of any herbal supplement.
5. You Have Options
Knowing the specific way a botanical dietary supplement is prepared can help you understand why some are more potent than others. Tinctures, extracts and teas of the same botanicals will all have different strengths. For instance peppermint tea is safe and even thought to be good for digestion, while peppermint oil can be toxic. Always go with your homeopath's recommendation on form and dosing.
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