Watch out Food supplements are often contaminated with toxins

Dietary supplement contaminated: From borage to water-based preparations

Certain plants such as borage and waterdust have developed a special strategy to defend against predators. They form so-called Pyrrolizidinalkaloide, the insects spoil the appetite, but are not healthy for humans. Dietary supplements made from such plants may be contaminated with these pollutants. Therefore, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) advises against the consumption of these products.

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA) are phytochemicals that can damage the liver in the human body and have a mutagenic and carcinogenic effect on animals. They may enter the food chain via PA-producing wild herbs on the crops of crops. Herbal tea, rooibos tea, black and green tea as well as honey are affected.

Dietary supplements do not always have to do our health good. There are also ingredients that can harm us. In addition, serious consequences due to overdose can not be ruled out. (Image: pat_hastings / fotolia.com)

Those who use the variety of food and eat varied, but the health risk can significantly reduce. For example, children should not only drink herbal tea, but also other drinks such as water and juice spritzers.

Dietary supplements made from PA-producing plants are particularly heavily loaded. In individual cases, the content may be so high that even after short-term consumption toxic effects are possible. Even small amounts lead, especially with regular consumption, to an increased health risk. This has been confirmed by a recent analysis of 191 dietary supplements from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

More than half were contaminated with the pollutants, the levels were different levels. The maximum value measured was found on a capsule with water vapor. Wasserdost belongs to the daisy family and is a plant that forms PA. Further examples of PA-formers in dietary supplements are coltsfoot, comfrey, borage, lungwort, stone seed and butterbur.

Also St. John's wort-containing preparations were criticized, which was probably due to impurities with PA-forming wild herbs. St. John's wort itself is not known as a PA-forming plant. In oil-based extracts of PA-forming plants, the pollutants were undetectable. Heike Kreutz, bzfe