Utilization of Botanical Dietary Supplements in the United States

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. 

The SSN estimated U.S. botanical sales in 1999 to be 4 billion. The network further quantified where consumers buy their botanical products. Forty-seven percent are sold in retail stores, 30% are sold in multilevel distribution systems, 8% are sold by mail order or practitioners, 6% was sold by Asian herbal shops, and only 1% was purchased on the Internet (13). Notwithstanding these findings, it is important to note that the Internet was the fastest growing sales market for botanical products, at 150% per year (45). 

The CHPA commissioned a study entitled Self-Care in the New Millenium American Attitudes Toward Maintaining Personal Health and Treatment. They conducted 1505 telephone interviews in January of 2001, using random telephone numbers. African-Americans and Hispanics were oversampled to conduct in-depth subgroup analysis. Of particular interest is the finding that 96% of respondents felt confident that they could take care of their own health. This might explain why so many people want access to pharmacologically active botanicals. These products do not require a prescription and thus allow patients to treat themselves. 

Many of these products are being used for specific medical conditions. The top five conditions, in many cases are refractory to conventional medicine, namely menopausal symptoms, colds, allergies/sinus, muscle/joint/ back pain, and premenstrual/menstrual symptoms. 

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