Quality Control and Testing

At Banyan Botanicals, your health and well-being are our highest priority. From our firm commitment to sourcing sustainable, organic, and fairly traded herbs, to meeting and often exceeding purity and safety standards, we take pride in providing you with the highest quality Ayurvedic herbs possible. 

In this article:

• Superior Quality Control
• Microbiologicals
• Heavy Metals
• Pesticides
• Identification
• Commitment to Excellence

Our Quality Promise

We employ leading experts in the field of Ayurveda and herbal medicine, and we have partnered with reputable laboratories here in the U.S. to ensure the purity and safety of our herbs.

Guided by the reputable standards of AHPA (American Herbal Products Association), a national trade association and voice for the herbal industry, we have created an extensive system for maintaining the highest possible standards for quality control of our herbs that is in conformity with (and often exceeds) those specified by AHPA.

Testing for botanicals is classified into the following four categories: Microbiologicals, Heavy Metals, Pesticides, and Identification.

Microbiologicals

Banyan requires microbiological testing and certificates of analysis from all of our suppliers for every batch of herbs; however, we do not solely rely on vendor certificates of analysis for testing data. All of our herbs, tablets, and other products are tested at qualified third party labs. These labs use appropriate testing methods, with criteria and methods of analysis determined by the following third-party organizations and protocols:

• BAM (Bacteriological Analytical Manual) is the FDA's preferred laboratory procedure for microbiological analyses of foods and cosmetics. These are a collection of procedures used for the detection of bacteria, viruses, parasites, yeast, mold, and microbial toxins.  
• AOAC (Official Methods of Analysis) International evaluates chemistry, microbiology, and molecular biology methods of analysis.
• USP (simply USP) is an organization that sets standards for public health and related programs to help ensure the quality, safety, and benefit of medicines, supplements, and foods.

Heavy Metals

Our herbs and products are tested for arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury using independent third party laboratories.

All of our products are within the safety guidelines stipulated by the American National Standards Institute/National Sanitation Foundation International Dietary Supplement Standard 173 (ANSI 173) and AHPA guidelines.

California's Proposition 65

To continue serving our California customers and to be in compliance with California's Proposition 65, we add the Prop 65 warning label to our products sold in that state. As noted by the AHPA, “The Prop 65 warnings are well-intentioned, but can be alarming and even misleading, since the warnings often occur on products that present no actual risk.” Learn more about Prop 65.

Pesticides

For an herb to be certified organic, its entire production must be free from the use of pesticides, sewage sludge, ionizing radiation, and genetic engineering (GMOs).

The National Organics Program (NOP) is housed within the USDA and is the gold standard in the United States for certified organic materials. A product is considered certified organic only after having been validated by an accredited certifying agency. All of our organic herbs and products are USDA certified organic.

Look for certification and the USDA seal on products labeled “organic.” It's your assurance that the product has been grown and handled without harmful chemicals and pesticides, in accordance with the USDA's strict organic standards.

Identification

Banyan uses the industry accepted practices for the proper identification of our botanicals. This includes organoleptics, which involves the physical examination of the herbs using the senses of sight, taste, smell, touch, and microscopic identification (checking plant cell structures against pharmacopoeia standards), as well as High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) to identify and verify that what we are using is actually the correct species. Our staff includes recognized experts in the field of Western and Ayurvedic herb identification.

In addition, qualified botanists in India conduct botanical verification of every species grown and also identify the species at the collection point.

Commitment to Excellence

All of our procedures at Banyan Botanicals are in alignment with industry standards and in accordance with the Dietary Supplement Health Education Act (DSHEA) and the FDA's cGMPs (current Good Manufacturing Practices).

We are committed to offering high quality products and are continually making improvements to our facility, systems, and procedures.