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Botanical Use in the United States between 1999 – 2002, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Author(s) -
Wilger Jaime Jacqueline,
Radimer Kathy,
Dimeler Melissa
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.5.a989-b
Subject(s) - ingredient , dietary supplement , national health and nutrition examination survey , medicine , traditional medicine , milk thistle , nutraceutical , vitamin , population , food supplement , food science , environmental health , biology
Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999‐2002, a nationally‐representative, cross‐sectional survey of health and nutrition, were analyzed to assess prevalence of dietary supplement botanical use in United States adults. Botanicals are products that are made from plants or plant parts. Botanical use in this analysis can be defined as taking a dietary supplement that contained either: (1) one or more botanical ingredients plus other types of ingredients such as a vitamin, mineral, amino acid, and/or (2) a strictly botanical supplement that had only one or more botanical ingredients within the supplement. Of the 51% of adults (45.2% males and 56.5% females) that reported taking a dietary supplement in the past month, 19% of males and 16% of females reported taking a supplement that contained botanicals. Of those who reported taking a supplement that contained botanicals, 6% of males and 5.4% of females reported taking a strictly botanical supplement. The most commonly reported botanicals in decreasing order were: ginkgo biloba, garlic, ginseng, saw palmetto, echinacea, alfalfa, green tea, St. John's wort, flaxseed, milk thistle, and cranberry. Use of strictly botanical ingredient supplements accounts for little of the dietary supplement use in the United States. However, botanicals as ingredients within multi ingredient supplements are used by 17% of the adult population whom take one or more dietary supplements. This could suggest that the major contribution of botanicals to the diet may not be from clearly labeled botanical products, but rather multi ingredient supplements. These findings show that it is important to look at and include botanicals within multi ingredient supplements when analyzing the prevalence of botanical use, since they represent the majority of botanical use.