The New York State attorney general’s office announced the results of a long term investigation targeting many popular brands of herbal supplements at popular retailers. Their tests showed that the vast majority of the supplements did not contain the herbs as stated, and instead contained cheap fillers like ground up rice and houseplants. Some contained ginkgo, but no biloba. Others consisted of Uncle Jim’s wart. And in twenty varieties of saw palmetto, no palmetto was seen.
The authorities demanded that the herb makers comply with stringent federal guidelines for supplements and immediately return the useless herbs to their products.
The supplement makers produced a joint statement, vehemently defending the practice of using ground up rice, wheat, and houseplants, instead of the herbs in question, saying that their own tests show that the resulting product was just as effective.