American Herbal Products Association

This year we joined the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) and I was appointed to the joint Botanical Raw Materials, Standards and Analytical Labs committee. AHPA is a national trade organization and it is focusing on promoting the responsible commerce of herbal products.

AHPA is also involved with key scientists and organizations that conduct research on herbs and maintain an active role with the various standards –setting organizations.

AHPA and AOACI are working together to establish and validate analytical methods for herbal products.

I attended the AHPA meeting in California for the first time in March. They are a very active and interesting association. They promote self-regulation, crisis management, education and other areas. They usually meet jointly with Natural Products Expo (East and West) which is a private, very large trade show.

AHPA also encourages member and contract laboratories to participate in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Dietary Supplement Laboratory Quality Assurance Program. This program allows laboratories to perform specific analyses and to see their results against known values. Pickering Laboratories is participating in this

Quality Assurance Program in the area of analysis of aflatoxins in peanut products.