The Rhodiola Rosea supplement has been widely used in US market, the consequent problems of plant species and genera are also gradually exposed.On most US companies’ nutrition/supplement facts, they all labeled and declared as Rhodiola Rosea.Currently on US market most Rhodiola Rosea are from China,however Rhodiola Rosea is not the main Rhodiola breed(commercial common used Rhodiola crenulata). Rhodiola Rosea belongs to Rhodiola category.There are about 90 kinds of Rhodiola,among them 73 kinds spread in China,most located in northwest and southwest,in Tibet and SiChuang province.
There are experts at the American plant association have tested 45 kinds of Rhodiola samples from random Chinese and UK resources.11 of the sample products have been marked as Rhodiola Rosea,while actually there are 8(72.7%) contains other Rhodiola category,4 of them contains Rhodiola crenulata,one of them contains Rhodiola heterodanta.The rest 7 ones declare they are Rhodiola crenulata,but actually still 3 of them contains other Rhodiola:2 of them are Rhodiola heterodanta,one is unknown plant category.
Why there are confounding situation of Rhodiola crenulata and Rhodiola Rosea?A system investigation show three reasons as below:
- Lacking of real raw materials of Rhodiola Rosea.
- The buyer sometimes don’t understand the local name or presentation.
- Intentional use of alternative species when collecting and processing dietary supplements.
Given that most Rhodiola is a wild collection, and it takes years to produce, in many areas, the two most commonly used varieties of large flowers and rose Rhodiola are only decreasing, leading to higher prices for them. The lack of precise definition of raw materials and the lack of operational specifications of the collector have led some of the gatherers to select any species readily available locally.
In view of the increasingly stringent regulation in the US and European markets, the Chinese Rhodiola manufacturers, who are interested in these two markets, need more stringent control over raw materials and production processes.
In addition to the process of control, trained experts can also detect the difference between Rhodiola rosea and other Rhodiola varieties by botany, TLC, HP-TLC, NMR and gene methods.