Botanical dietary supplements utilization

UTILIZATION OF BOTANICAL DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES... 

Several major surveys of dietary supplement utilization have been conducted recently. The Saskatchewan Nutriceutical Network (SNN) (13), National Nutritional Food Association (NNFA) (14), Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) (11), Landmark Healthcare, Inc. (16), The NMI (18), individual investigators (9,12), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (15), and FDA (10) have all recently either conducted or contracted market analyses of CAM utilization in the United States, which included botanicals. Each survey is presented individually because the data are so heterogeneous among studies. 

Note In column 2 (7), sales rankings, by dollars, for the top 20 sold in the United States for the year 1999 are given. Column 3 (12) gives the top 10 products in 2002 in an ambulatory adult population (13). Reported sales in dollars are present in column 4. Columns 5 and 6 (66) give the conditions the botanicals have been used for. The Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database at http //www.naturaldatabasc.com (66) distinguishes gradations of evidence for effectiveness, which we have not done here. There is much variability in the data from report to report even data within the same trade journal data are inconsistent with that from previous reports. This in no way endorses the utilization of dietary supplements for treatment of these conditions. Patients should always seek the advice of their health care provider. 

This chapter offered a review of some of the unique aspects of utilizing plants as sources for screening samples for drug discovery programs. Botanical products from such programs can be marketed as foods, dietary supplements, and drugs. 

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