79% of Major Brand Herbal Supplements Don't Contain The Herbs They're Selling

Forbes recaps the story.

While few of the supplements are effective in clinical studies, part of the problem may be that the supplements that are sold don't actually contain any of the primary ingredients.  The entire industry is absolutely rotten with pure fraud and the CEOs of the respective companies, as well as everyone else involved, belongs in prison for fraud for long terms.

Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, who has been the guardian angel of these companies in Congress, also deserved some of the blame.

A summary of the findings by the New York attorney general's office's testing:

• GNC’s “Herbal Plus” supplements: ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort, ginseng, garlic, echinacea, and saw palmetto were tested. Garlic was the only one that consistently contained what the label indicated. One out of four bottles of saw palmetto tested positive, and none of the other four supplements contained the labeled herb. . . .
• Target's “Up & Up” supplements: gingko biloba, St. John’s wort, Valerian root, garlic, echinacea, and saw palmetto were tested. Three supplements–garlic, saw palmetto, and echinacea–contained what they were supposed to. The other three had no DNA at all from the labeled ingredient. . . .
• Walgreens “Finest Nutrition” supplements: ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort, ginseng, garlic, echinacea, and saw palmetto were tested. Only one of these, saw palmetto, consistently contained its labeled ingredient. One sample of garlic actually contained garlic, and none of the other samples contained any DNA from the labeled ingredient. . . . 
• Walmart’s “Spring Valley” supplements: ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort, ginseng, garlic, echinacea, saw palmetto were tested. Walmart had the worst results: of 90 DNA tests on 18 bottles, only 4% found any DNA from the labeled ingredient. Only one bottle of garlic and one bottle of saw palmetto contained what they were supposed to.

None of the gingko biloba, Valerian root, St. John's wort, or ginseng in any of the brands at major national retailers contained the ingredients claimed.