Adulteration and Counterfeiting of Online Nutraceutical Formulations in the United States: Time for Intervention?

ABSTRACT

Global prevalence of nutraceuticals is noticeably high. The American market is flooded with nutraceuticals claiming to be of natural origin and sold with a therapeutic claim by major online retail stores such as Amazon and eBay. The objective of this commentary is to highlight the possible problems of online-sold nutraceuticals in the United States with respect to claim, adulterants, and safety. Furthermore, there is a lack of strict regulatory laws governing the sales, manufacturing, marketing, and label claims of nutraceutical formulations currently sold in the U.S. market. Major online retail stores and Internet pharmacies aid the widespread sale of nutraceuticals. Finally, according to the literature, many of these products were found to be either counterfeit or adulterated with active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and mislabeled as being safe and natural. Therefore, regulatory authorities along with the research community should intervene to draw attention to these products and their possible effects.

KEYWORDS:

• adulteration
• counterfeit
• male enhancement
• nutraceuticals
• online retail stores
• weight loss

Declaration of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

About the authors

Mohamed Ismail Nounou, BPharm, MSc, PhD, is an assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at University of Saint Joseph, School of Pharmacy (Hartford, CT). Dr. Nounou's current research is focused on five different research topics, brain drug delivery, non-viral gene delivery, weight loss management, topical and transdermal drug delivery and quality of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals in the USA.

Nadal A. Helal, BPharm, MPSc, is a graduate student at Alexandria University (Alexandria, Egypt). Her Master Degree thesis was mainly concerned with adulteration and counterfeiting of weight loss formulations.

Yamin Ko and Jeremy Boltz are PharmD candidates (Class of 2019) at Appalachian College of Pharmacy (Oakwood, VA).