December 12/Milan, Italy/ScienceDaily -- While many consumers equal “natural” with “safe,” botanicals and botanical preparations such as plant-based food supplements may contain compounds, like the so called alkenylbenzenes, that are of concern for human health. At high doses these chemical compounds can cause liver cancer in experimental animals. A new study, published in the latest issue of the journal Food and Nutrition Sciences, reveals that in many plant-based food supplements levels of these compounds are so low they are of no concern. Although there are also plant-based food supplements on the market that contain alkenylbenzenes at levels comparable to those causing tumors in laboratory animals. This indicates a need for better regulation and quality control of plant-based food supplements containing alkenylbenzenes.
Botanicals and botanical preparations such as plant-based food supplements are extensively used by consumers within the European Union and the market volume for these products is expanding. To assess the safety of plant-based food supplements used in the European Union, an extensive selection and analysis of botanical compounds of concern and present in plant-based food supplements was performed by researchers of Wageningen University, part of Wageningen UR, the University of Milan (Università degli Studi di Milano) and Proform SA collaborating under the EU project PlantLIBRA.