It’s cold season. If you are one of the millions of people who pop a zinc tablet or echinacea capsule at the first sign of a scratchy throat, how many do you take? How often should you take them? And do you know how they’ll react with other medications you may be taking?
Because they aren’t regulated as pharmaceuticals, herbal medicines and food supplements can vary widely in the amount, strength and particularly quality of active ingredient they contain.
This lack of quality control and uniformity are growing problems for the rapidly expanding herbal medicine and plant-based food supplement industry.
Research to help the industry overcome these problems will be the subject of a panel organized by a WSU scientist at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Seattle on Feb. 12-17. This is the first-ever panel of this nature; in the past, only pharmaceutical companies orchestrated such events.
Dr. Moris Silber, a medical doctor and researcher in Washington State University’s Department of Natural Resource Sciences, is the organizer of the event and will give the symposimintroduction. He also will give an overview of the practical, easy-to-use techniques under his development at WSU for assessing the quality, efficacy and safety of plant-derived medicinal and dietary products.
“The natural products industry is characterized by an enormous gap of scientific information about the interactions of a variety of important biologically active constituents,” said Silber.
At WSU, Silber has developed the Tanalyzer — a hand-held digital instrument for measuring tannin content in foods and supplements.
Tannins are found in some of our most cherished foods: red wine, apples, chocolate, pecans, coffee, black tea, whiskey, brandy, port …and natural supplements.
However beneficial they may be in smaller doses, tannins pose a threat when consumed in greater quantities. Tannins may bind to too many digestive enzymes, thus compromising the whole digestive system so that food eaten afterwards is not digested properly or assimilated into the body.
“Knowing tannin levels is important for quality control,” said Silber. “If we know tannin content, we can monitor quality, and safety of the product will be higher.”
The Tanalyzer is fast, low-cost, very sensitive and portable. The instrument is about the size of a hand-held diabetic meter used in the home. It reads tannin levels from the crushed extract of a food or supplement.
“The Tanalyzer is a feasible, analytical, portable kit that anyone can use,” said Silber.
Among the reasons for the popularity of herbal medicines and food supplements is that they can offer a natural alternative to pharmaceuticals and the side effects they can bring. They also can be cheaper and more accessible than pharmaceuticals, which require a prescription.
“The goal is to eventually help the average American have quality control over their foods at an easy access,” Silber said.
The Tanalyzer has caught the interest of nutraceutical companies, among them Blaze Scientific Industries, with whom WSU is discussing exclusive licensing and marketing rights of the Tanalyzer.
“We have the blueprint and the know-how,” Silber said. “We just need a company to produce and market it.”
Silber received his medical degree from the Medical Pediatric Institute, Leningrad, USSR, in 1964, and doctoral degree in biochemistry and molecular physiology from the Institute of Experimental Medicine, USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, in 1972. He was a scientific advisor and nutrition consultant to the USSR National Olympic Teams from 1976 to 1989 and held the same position for the USA Women’s Swimming Team in 1995. He is a fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Sports Medicine.
