AHPA’s Steven Dentali Helps Raise Bar on NCCAM Research



Other common supplements taken by patients in the study that ASPS said may cause dangerous side effects were ginkgo biloba, goldenseal, milk thistle, ginseng, kava and garlic.

Steven Dentali, vice president of scientific and technical affairs for the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), Silver Spring, MD, and Nutraceuticals World Editorial Advisory Board member, recently addressed the Advisory Council of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), providing an update on new applied standards to ensure the quality of research into herbal products and other biologically active test agents. From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Dentali served on the study section, which reviews NCCAM R21 grants (Investigator-Initiated Exploratory/Developmental Research). “Early on in those panel meetings,” Mr. Dentali said, “it became clear that product quality issues often required a distinct and sometimes separate focus because researchers rarely got this part of the research proposal right.”
Mr. Dentali now chairs the five-member Product Quality Working Group (PQWG), which was approved in concept last summer and formed late last year to address this issue. In his address to the Council, Mr. Dentali explained how the new PQWG reviews “just-in-time” information submitted by applicants for the highest scoring proposals before a funding decision is made. Investigators who research botanical preparations must follow guidance, which includes information on 20 different points, including identification of the source material, its source, its cleanliness and quality standards, extraction procedures and formulation, and stability and storage. Similar information is required for proposed research into products derived from animals, probiotics, placebos and other agents.
“While it may seem burdensome to require preeminent researchers in their chosen field to jump through NCCAM product quality just-in-time hoops, we cannot allow good scientific work to go to waste because the natural product link isn’t