SILVER SPRING, Md.—American Herbal Products Association’s (AHPA) chief science officer Steven Dentali, Ph.D., provided a point/counterpoint to a call for changes to the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act (DSHEA) in the February 2010 issue of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.
Dentali’s article, “Successful Botanical Research Requires Botanical Expertise,” provides an opposing perspective to an article by Drs. Tsourounis and Bent. While they argue additional regulatory oversight by FDA is needed to improve the quality of botanical research, Dentali argues what is needed in current research is experience working with crude botanical materials. Scientific interest of well-known botanicals declined in the United States during the middle decades of the 20th century as the use of medical herbs fall out of fashion within the medical community, Dentali explained, and it will take some time to reestablish our forgotten familiarity with them.
“Every field of scientific inquiry and exploration is defined by expertise put into practice,” said Dentali. “The current challenge in botanical research is to involve experts who understand botanical preparations in the context of modern medical investigative approaches. I am honored to have had this opportunity to educate an important group of scientists and doctors on the past and future of botanical research.”
In addition to the article, Dentali and William Gurley, Ph.D., discuss the safety and efficacy of herbal supplements in an accompanying podcast available online.
